Russian Fairytales 2 Secret Revealed

She went out into the street, and while she was taking leave of him she quietly dropped the noose over one of his b.u.t.tons. He went his way, but she remained where she was, unrolling the ball. When she had unrolled the whole of it, she ran after the thread to find out where her betrothed lived.

At first the thread followed the road, then it stretched across hedges and ditches, and led Marusia towards the church and right up to the porch. Marusia tried the door; it was locked. She went round the church, found a ladder, set it against a window, and climbed up it to see what was going on inside.

Having got into the church, she looked—and saw her betrothed standing beside a grave and devouring a dead body—for a corpse had been left for that night in the church.

She wanted to get down the ladder quietly, but her fright prevented her from taking proper heed, and she made a little noise. Then she ran home—almost beside herself, fancying all the time she was being pursued. She was all but dead before she got in. Next morning her mother asked her:

"Well, Marusia! did you see the youth?"

"I saw him, mother," she replied. But what else she had seen, she did not tell.

In the morning Marusia was sitting, considering whether she would go to the gathering or not.

"Go," said her mother. "Amuse yourself while you're young!"

So she went to the gathering; the Fiend was there already. Games, fun, dancing, began anew; the girls knew nothing of what had happened. When they began to separate and go homewards:

"Come, Marusia!" says the Evil One, "See me off."

She was afraid, and didn't stir. Then all the other girls opened out upon her.

"What are you thinking about? Have you grown so bashful, forsooth? Go and see the good lad off."

There was no help for it. Out she went, not knowing what would come of it. As soon as they got into the streets he began questioning her:

"You were in the church last night?"

"No."

"And saw what I was doing there?"

"No."

"Very well! Tomorrow your father will die!"

Having said this, he disappeared.

Marusia returned home grave and sad. When she woke up in the morning, her father lay dead!