“And whose art thou?” he asks.
“I am thy brother’s Luck,” she answers.
“But where is my Luck?” he continues
“Far away from thee is thy Luck,” she replies.
“But can I find her?” he asks.
“Thou canst; go and seek her,” she replies.
So the poor man wanders away in search of her. One day he sees a grey-haired old woman asleep under an oak in a great forest, who proves to be his Luck. He asks who it is that has given him such a poor Luck, and is told that it is Fate. So he goes in search of Fate. When he finds her, she is living at ease in a large house, but day by day her riches wane and her house contracts. She explains to her visitor that her condition at any given hour affects the whole lives of all children born at that time, and that he had come into the world at a most unpropitious moment; and she advises him to take his niece Militsa (who had been born at a lucky time) to live in his house, and to call all he might acquire her property. This advice he follows, and all goes well with him. One day, as he is gazing at a splendid field of corn, a stranger asks him to whom it belongs. In a forgetful moment he replies, “It is mine,” and immediately the whole crop begins to burn. He runs after the stranger and cries, “Stop, brother! that field isn’t mine, but my niece Militsa’s,” whereupon the fire goes out and the crop is saved.[243]
On this idea of a personal Fortune is founded the quaint opening of one of the Russian stories. A certain peasant, known as Ivan the Unlucky, in despair at his constant want of success, goes to the king for advice. The king lays the matter before “his nobles and generals,” but they can make nothing of it. At last the king’s daughter enters the council chamber and says, “This is my opinion, my father. If he were to be married, the Lord might allot him another sort of Fortune.” The king flies into a passion and exclaims:
“Since you’ve settled the question better than all of us, go and marry him yourself!”
The marriage takes place, and brings Ivan good luck along with it.[244]