Random Story To Tell

“Thank you, Antipka,” she said sweetly. “I heard everything. I don’t know how to thank you.”

Before Antipka could reply, the merchant and his wife rushed in and first hugged their daughter and then hugged Antipka. Then the merchant beamed and his wife burst into tears again.

“You shall name your reward, my friend,” said the merchant. “Go away and think it over. And then come back and ask for whatever you want and you shall have it.”

With that, Antipka took leave of the happy family and went back to the hole in the ground.

“I must be careful now,” he thought. “If I feel a light weight on the rope it will be the hobgoblin again and I mustn’t pull him up, but if I feel a heavy weight it will be my wife, and it will be safe to pull.”

He lowered the rope slowly, slowly, once again and felt a sharp tug which nearly pulled him over the edge.
He began to draw it up, and the weight was so heavy that he knew it must be his wife. Sure enough, the familiar nagging noise soon reached his ears and after he had been pulling for a while he could even make out a few words: “selfish,.. unthinking beast… leaving me all alone,.. enjoying himself.”

Finally the head of Antipka’s wife appeared. Her face was scarlet with anger.

“Well!” she bellowed, “what are you waiting form you idle brute? Don’t you think I’ve been down there long enough? What have you been doing all this time? Just wait till I get you home. .. .. aaa!!”

With a sigh, Antipka let go of the rope and she went plunging down into the darkness again.
The next morning he returned to the merchant’s house where he was welcomed warmly.

“And what will your reward be, Antipka?” ask the merchant. “Gold? Jewels? A carriage with four horses?”

“If I may,” said Antipka gently, “I’d like to marry your beautiful daughter.”

The merchant’s daughter, who was in the room, was overjoyed to hear this, and the merchant and his wife willingly gave their consent.

And so Antipka and his beautiful new wife live in the little wooden house. Antipka is much happier now: his wife looks after him well, they have added new rooms to their home, they always use the brightly coloured plates and they never have a seriuos quarrel.
Every day the go hand in hand to the hole by the cranberry bush and throw some food down to Antipka’s bad-tempered wife. And when ther is now wind they can sometimes faintly hear her scolding and complaining at the bottom of the pit.

It is then they look at each other and think how lucky they are.

End of Story

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