A soldier served God and the Great Tzar for twenty-five years, earned three dry biscuits, and set off to walk his way home. He kissed his companions with whom he had served so long, and boasted of the feasting there would be in the village when he should come marching home with all his wars behind him. Singing at the top of his voice he was as he set off.
But as soon as he was alone on the high road, walking through the forest he began to think things over. And he thought to himself, All these years I have served the Tzar and had good clothes to my back and my belly full of victuals. And now I am like to be both hungry and cold. Already I’ve nothing but three dry biscuits. Just then he met an old beggar, who stood in the road and crossed himself and asked alms for the love of God. The soldier had not a copper piece in the world, so he gave the beggar one of his three dry biscuits.
He had not gone very far along the road when he met a second beggar, who leant on a stick and recited holy words and begged alms for the love or God. The soldier gave him the second of his three dry biscuits.
And then, at a bend in the road, he met a third old beggar, with long white hair and beard and loathsome rags, who stood shaking by the roadside, and he begged alms for the love of God. He thought, if I give him my last dry biscuit I shall have nothing left for myself” thought the soldier. He gave the old beggar half of the third dry biscuit. Then another thought came into his head that perhaps this old beggar would meet the other two, and would learn that they had been given whole biscuits while he had only been given a half. He will be hurt and offended thought the soldier, his blessing will be of no avail. So he gave the old beggar the other half also of the third of his three dry biscuits. I shall get along somehow the soldier concluded, and began making his way forward.
But the old beggar put out his hand and stopped him. “Brother” said the old beggar “are you in want of anything?” The soldier replied, “God bless you” looking at the beggar’s rags, he said “I want nothing from you. You’re a poor man yourself.” The beggar insisted, “Never mind my poverty, just tell me what you would like to have, and I am well able to reward you for your kind heart.” The soldier said, “I don’t want anything, but if you do happen to have such a thing as a pack of cards about you, I’d keep them in memory of you, and they’d be a pleasure to me on the long road.”
The old beggar thrust his hand into his bosom among his rags, and pulled out a pack of cards. ” Take these,” said he, ” and when you play with them you’ll always be winner whoever may be playing against you. Here’s a flour sack for you as well. If you meet anything and want to catch it, just open the sack and tell beasts or birds or aught else to get into it, and they’ll do just that, and you can close the sack to do with them what you will.”
“Thank you kindly” said the soldier. Throwing the sack over his shoulder, he put the pack of cards in his pocket, and trudged off along the high road singing an old song. He went on and on till he came to a lake, where he drank a little water to ease his thirst, and smoked a pipe to put off his hunger, resting by the shore of the lake.
And there on the lake he saw three wild geese swimming far away. If only I could catch them thought the soldier. Then he remembered the sack the old beggar had given him. He opened it up and shouted at the top of his voice,”You there, you wild geese, come into my sack!” And the three wild geese splashed up out of the water, and flew to the bank and crowded into the sack one after the other. The soldier tied up the mouth of the sack, flung it over his shoulder and went on his way.
He came to a town, looked for a tavern, chose the best he could see, and went in there to ask for the landlord. “See here” says he, “here are three wild geese. I want one of them roasted for my dinner. Another I’ll give you in exchange for some vodka. The third will pay you for your trouble.” The landlord agreed, as well he might, and presently the soldier was seated at a good table near a window, with a whole bottle of the best vodka, and a fine roast goose fresh from the kitchen. When he had made an end of the goose, the soldier laid down his knife and fork, tipped the last drops of the vodka down his throat, and set the bottle upside down upon the table.
Next he lit his little pipe, sat back on the bench and took a look out of the window to see what was doing in the town. There on the other side of the road was a fine palace, well carved and painted. A year’s work had gone to the carving of every doorpost and window-frame. But in all the palace there was not one whole pane of glass. “Landlord,” said the soldier, “tell me what’s the meaning of this? Why is a fine palace like that standing empty with broken windows ?” The landlord explained, “It’s a good enough palace, the Tzar built the palace for himself, but there’s no living in it because of the devils.”
“Devils?” asked the soldier. “Devils.” confirmed the landlord. “Every night they crowd into the palace, what with their shouting, yelling, screaming, playing cards, and all the other devilries that come into their heads, there’s no living in the palace for decent folk.” The soldier asked, “Does nobody clear them out?” The landlord said “Easier said than done.”
With that, the soldier wishes good health to the landlord, and sets off to see the Tzar. He comes walking into the Tzar’s house and gives him a salute. “Your Majesty, will you give me leave to spend one night in your empty palace?” The Tzar looked at him oddly and said, “God bless you, but you don’t know what you are asking. Foolhardy folk enough have tried to spend a night in that palace. They went in merry and boasting, but not one of them came walking out alive in the morning.” The soldier answered, “What of it? Water won’t drown a Russian soldier, and fire won’t burn him. I have served God and the Tzar for twenty-five years and am not dead. A single night in that palace won’t be end of me.”
The Tzar continued “But I tell you, a man walks in there alive in the evening, and in the morning the servants have to search the floor for the little bits of his bones.” The soldier pressed on, “Nonetheless, if your majesty will give me leave, I would like to try.” Finally the Tzar conceded. “Get along with you and God be with you. Spend the night there if you’ve set your heart on it.”
So the soldier came to the palace and stepped in, singing through the empty rooms. He made himself comfortable in the biggest room of all, laid his knapsack in a corner, hung his sword on a nail, sat down at the table, took out his bag of tobacco, filled his little pipe, and sat there smoking, ready for what might come.
Twelve o’clock sharp and there was a yelling, a shouting, a blowing of horns, a scraping of fiddles and every other kind of instrument, a noise of dancing, of running, of stamping, and the palace cram full of devils making themselves at home as if the place belonged to them. “Yo soldier, what are you sitting there so glum for, smoking your pipe. There’s smoke enough where we have been. Put your pipe in your pocket and play a round of cards with us.” Said on of the devils.”Right you are” says the soldier to the devil “if you’ll play with my cards, I’ll play with you.”
“Deal them out,” shouted the devils, and the soldier put his pipe in his pocket and dealt out the cards, while the devils crowded round the table fighting for room on the benches. They played a game and the soldier won. They played another and he won again. The devils were cunning enough, God knows, but not all their cunning could win a single game for them. The soldier was raking in the money all the time. Soon enough the devils had not a penny piece between them, and the soldier was for putting up his cards and lighting his pipe. Content he was, and well he might be, with his pockets bulging with money.
“Stop a minute soldier” said the devils “we’ve still got sixty bushels of silver and forty of gold. We’ll play for them if you’ll give us time to send for them.” The soldier asked to see the silver and gold, then put the cards in his pocket to wait. Well, they sent a little devil to fetch the precious silver and gold. Sixty times he ran out of the room and sixty times he came staggering back with a bushel of silver on his shoulders. Sixty more times he ran out of the room and sixty more times he returned with the bushels of gold.
The soldier pulled out his cards, and they played on, but it was all the same. The devils cheated in every kind of way, but could not win a game. “Go and fetch more, diamonds this time” said the oldest devil to the littlest one. And again, the little devil goes scuttling out of the room. Fifty times he ran out, and fifty times he came staggering back with diamonds in bags between his shoulders. They played on.
The soldier won every game and all the diamonds, asked the devils if they had anything more to lose, put his cards in his pocket and lit his pipe. The devils looked at all they had lost. It seemed a pity to lose all their valuables. “Tear him to pieces, brothers,” they cried “tear him to pieces, eat him and have done!” The soldier tapped his little pipe on the table. “First make sure” said he, “who eats whom.” And with that he whips out his sack, and says to the devils, who were all gnashing their teeth and making ready to fall on him,”What do you call this?” the devils said “It’s a sack.” The soldier said “It is – and by the word of God, get into it! ”
And the next minute all those devils were tumbling over each other and getting into the sack, squeezing in one on the top of another until the last one had got inside. Then the soldier tied up the sack with a good double knot, hung it on a nail, and lay down to sleep.
In the morning the Tzar sent his servants to see what happened to the soldier who spent the night in the empty palace. “If the unclean spirits have made an end of him, then you must sweep up his bones and make all clean.” He instructed them. The servants came to the palace all ready to lament for the brave soldier done to death by the unclean. Yet there was the soldier walking cheerfully from one room to another, smoking his little pipe. “Well done, soldier! We never thought to see you alive. And how did you spend the night? How did you manage against the devils?”
“Devils? ” said the soldier. “I wish all men I have played cards against had paid their debts so honestly. Have a look at the silver and gold I won from them. See the bags of jewels. Look at the heaps of money lying on the floor.” The servants looked at it all and touched it to see if it was real. But there was no doubt about that. “Now, brothers, off with you as quick as you can, go and fetch two blacksmiths here on the run. And let them bring with them an iron anvil and the two heaviest hammers in the forge.”
The servants asked no questions, but hurried to the smithy, and the two blacksmiths came running, with anvil and hammers. Giants they were, the strongest men in all the town. ” Now,” says the soldier, ” take that sack from the nail and lay it on the anvil and let me see how the blacksmiths of this town can set about their work. The blacksmiths took the sack from the nail. “Devil take it, what a weight!” they said to each other. And little voices screamed out of the sack, “We are good folk. We are your own people.” The blacksmiths were unconvinced and they laid the sack on the anvil and swung the great hammers, up and down, up and down, as if they were beating out a lump of iron. The devils fared badly in there, and worse and worse. The hammers came down as if they were going through devils, anvil, earth, and all. It was more than even devils could bear.
“Have mercy!” they screamed. “Have mercy, soldier! Let us out again into the world, and we’ll never forget you. As for this palace, no devil shall put the nail of the toe of his foot in it. We’ll tell them all. Not one shall come within a hundred miles.” The soldier let the blacksmiths give a few more blows, just for luck. Then he stopped the poundings and untied the mouth of the sack. The moment he opened it, the devils shot out, and fled away to hell without looking right or left in their hurry. But the soldier was no fool, and he grabbed one old devil by the leg. And the devil hung gibbering, trying to get away. The soldier cut the devil’s hairy wrist to the bone, so that the blood flowed, took a pen, dipped it in the blood, and gave it to the devil. But he never let go of his leg. “Write” says he “that you will be my faithful servant.”
The old devil screamed and wriggled, but the soldier gripped him tight. There was nothing to be done. He wrote and signed in his own blood a promise to serve the soldier faithfully wherever and whenever there should be need. Then the soldier let him go, and he went hopping and screaming after the others, and had disappeared in a moment. And so the devils went rushing down to hell, aching in every bone of their hairy bodies. And they called all the other unclean spirits, old and young, big and little, and told what had happened to them. And they set sentinels all round hell, and guards at every gate, and ordered them to watch well, and whatever they did, not on any account to let in the soldier with the flour sack.
The soldier went to the Tzar and told him how he had dealt with the devils, and how henceforth no devil would set foot within a hundred miles of the palace. “If that’s so,” said the Tzar “we’ll move at once to go and live there. And you shall live with me and be honored as my own brother.”
And so, the soldier, lived well by the gratitude of the Tzar and the generosity of the God he served.