At last Easter Day came, and the bells rang for Mass. So the poor peasant thought, “All good folks are getting ready to break the fast, and I have not a crust of bread. Well, if I bring water, I can sip it like soup.” So he took a small can, went to the well, and as soon as he dipped it into the water a big pike fell into it. Then the peasant was very glad. “Here is something for supper; I will cook it and make fish soup of it, and shall have a fine supper.” Then the pike said to him in a human voice: “Let me go free, good man, go free. I will make you happy; whatever your soul may desire you shall possess. You need only say: At the pike’s good pleasure, By God’s good measure— let this or that appear! and you will get it at once.” So the peasant put the pike back into the water, went to his hut, sat down at the table and said: “At the pike’s good pleasure, By God’s good measure— let the table be covered and my dinner ready.” Then from somewhere or other all sorts of dishes and drinks appeared on the table, enough to please a Tsar, and a Tsar would not have been ashamed of it. So the poor man crossed himself, said “Glory be to Thee, O Lord! now I can break the fast.” So he went to the church, attended Matins and Mass, turned back and again broke his fast, ate and drank as well, went outside the door and sat at the counter. Just about then the Princess had an idea that she would go abroad in the streets, and she went with her attendants and maids of honour, and for the sake of the holy festival went to give alms to the poor; she gave to them all but forgot the poor peasant. Then he said to himself: “At the pike’s good pleasure, Of God’s good treasure— let the Tsarévna bear a child.” And at the word that very instant the Tsarévna became pregnant, and in ten months she bore a son. Then the Tsar began to ask her, “Do acknowledge with whom you have been guilty.” Then the Tsarévna wept and swore in every way that she had been guilty with nobody. “I do not know myself,” she said, “why the Lord has chastised me.” The Tsar asked, but found nothing out. Soon a boy was born who grew not by days but by hours; and at the end of a week he could already talk. So the Tsar summoned all the _boyárs_ and the senators from every part of the kingdom to show them the youth, but none of them acknowledged that he was the father. “No,” the boy answered, “none of them is my father.” Then the Tsar bade the maids of honour and attendants take him up to every courtyard, through all the streets, and to show him to all manner of people. So the attendants and maids of honour took the youth through all the courtyards, through all the streets they went. But the boy said nothing.