witching him all the time.

"Why so sad, master?" Woe would ask, when the poor man sighed. "Listen
to me, I want to teach thee a song, my beloved little song:

"I am Woe, the brave,
I am Woe, the bold;
He who lives with me
Has his griefs controlled,
And when money is lacking
I'll find him gold.

Attention, master, thou hast twenty-five copecks; let us go and buy
some wine; let us have a jolly good time."

The poor man obeyed. They went and spent all in drink. After this the
unlucky fellow, with the faithful Woe on his shoulders, came home. His
wife was sad, his little children were hungry and in tears, but he,
under the influence of Woe and wine, danced and sang.

On the next day Woe began to sigh and said:

"I have a drunken headache. Let us drink more."

"I have no money," answered the poor man.

"Hast thou forgotten my little song? Let us trade the harrow, the
plow, the sledge, the telega for money, and let us have a good time."

"All right."

The poor, weak man had no courage to refuse, and Woe Bogotir became
his master and ruler. They went to a kabak and spent everything;
drank, sang, and had a good time.

On the next day Woe sighed again and said to the peasant:

"Let us drink; let us have a jolly time; let us sell or trade
everything left, even ourselves."

Then the fellow understood that his ruin was near and decided to
deceive the sorrowful Woe, so he said:

"I once heard the old people say that behind the village, near the
dark forest, there is buried a treasure, yes, a great treasure, but it
is buried under a large, heavy stone, too heavy a stone for one man
to move. If we could only remove that stone, thou and I, Woe Bogotir,
could have a good time and plenty to drink."

"Let us hasten!" screamed Woe; "the Bitter Woe is strong enough to do
harder things than to move stones."

They went a roundabout way behind the village and saw the great big
stone, such a heavy stone that five or six strong peasants could never
begin to move it. But our poor fellow with his faithful Woe Bogotir
removed it at once. They looked inside. Under the stone there was
a pit, a dark, deep pit. At the bottom of that pit something was
twinkling. The peasant said to Woe:

"Thou bold Woe, jump in, throw the gold out to me and I will hold the
stone."

Woe jumped in and laughed out loud.

"I declare, master," he screamed, "there is no end of gold! There are
twenty and more pots filled with it," and W