The facts of the matter were as follows. Radion brought home the herd of cows on a certain evening _one short_. The pastuch arrived from the pasture looking pale and haggard, escorted the herd as far as the village street, and himself turned aside into the house of the starost, whom he found lying asleep upon the top of his stove. Radion spent a considerable time bowing and crossing himself before the _ikon_, prostrating himself several times and touching with his forehead the bare boards of the floor. Then he turned his wild eyes towards the chief peasant of the village. "Starost," he said, "a fearful thing has happened. The _liéshuie_ are against us. We have offended the Spirits of the Forest, in whose service are the bears and the wolves. Let us propitiate them before it is too late, or a worse thing may happen!" "Worse than what?" asked the starost. "It appears to me, my brother, that you are drunk." "I may be a little drunk, brother Ivan Ivanich," replied Radion, "but who would not take a little drop if he had been chased by two enormous wolves and laughed at by the king of the _liéshuie_ himself?" "Are you sure it was not a _bielaya kooropatka_ (willow grouse)?" said the unbelieving starost. "Even sober men have ere now mistaken the cry of the _kooropatka_ for the laugh of a wood-goblin." "And what of the wolves, your charitableness, and the cow that is eaten up together with her bones and skin?" retorted the offended pastuch. "What!" cried Ivan Ivanich, starting to his feet; "not one of _my_ cows, Radion Vasilitch?" The starost was serious enough now! "Yes, Ivan Ivanich; and the best cow in the village, and the fattest. Do you think the wolf-hunters of the _liéshuie_ do not know which is the pick of the herd? As for me, though I blew my horn--yes, and cracked my long whip at them and shouted--all I could do was to attract their attention to myself instead of to the cow. Starost, I would not again go through that fearful chase for ten times four roubles a month. They pursued me to the foot of a tree, Ivan Ivanich--it is a true word" (here Radion turned towards the _ikon_ and crossed himself); "and had I not remembered to call upon the holy saint and equal to the Apostles, my patron, they would have eaten me as well as the cow Masha! As it was, from the top of a tree I saw the furious beasts fall upon poor Masha, tear her to pieces, and eat her entirely up, so that not a trace remained, while an invisible _liéshui_ spirit laughed aloud until every particle was consumed. Then the wolves came licking their lips, to the foot of my tree, and, looking up at me, howled three times and vanished. It was with difficulty that I succeeded in reaching the village, for my knees have no strength, and my heart is as the heart of a lamb or of a sucking-pig after this terrible day."