He walked on, and the river fish asked him—
“Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?”
“I have gained a kopeck.”
The fish said nothing, she only whisked her tail and dived right down to the river-bed to get away from the world, for fear she should be made into a peasant too.
The peasant walked on and met a priest, so he took off his cap and went to receive his blessing. The priest saw that the peasant was coming home from work, so that he very likely had a kopeck; and the priest thought he would like to have that kopeck himself. So he came up to the peasant and said—
“Open your mouth.”
The peasant opened it.
“Put out your tongue.”
He put it out. The priest put his hand in his pocket, took out some bread crumbs and sprinkled a little on the peasant’s tongue. What was left he put by for another time.
“Now give me your kopeck,” he said.