cannot really afford the time, I am so
busy. You, Ivan,--you are different: you are not a man of affairs; how
could you spend your time better than reading prayers over our father's
grave?'

'So be it,' replied Ivan. 'You get back to your work and I will attend
to the sacred duty for another seven days.'

The two elder brothers went their separate ways, and for seven more days
devoted their entire attention to training their horses for the flying
leap at the Princess's lips. How they tore like mad about the fields!
How they jumped the hedges and ditches! How they curled their hair and
dyed their moustaches and practised their lips, not only to 'prunes and
prisms,' but to 'peaches of passion' and 'pomegranates,' and
'peripatetic perambulation' and everything they could think of! In fact,
they paid so much attention to the lips which were to meet those of the
Princess at the top of the flying leap, that they began to neglect their
own and their horses' meals. In other words, they were beginning to show
signs of over-training.

At the end of the second seven days Ivan again summoned them to a family
council, and asked them if either of them could now take up the sacred
duty. But no; thinking heavily on horses and lips, and high jumps and
kisses, they spoke lightly of fields to be tilled, seed to be sown, and
all such things that must be done at once. Their view was--and they got
quite friendly over it--that Ivan should be more than delighted to bear
this pleasurable burden of reading prayers over his father's grave.
Indeed, nothing but the stern call of immediate duty would prevail upon
them to relinquish a task so pleasant.

'So be it,' said Ivan; 'I will perform the sacred duty for another seven
days.' But as he spoke, he noted his brothers' curled hair and dyed
moustaches, and gleaned from this, and from the look of sudden suspicion
and jealousy exchanged between them, that they were both in love with
the same fair one. But he kept this to himself, and left them to their
own concerns.

Again, at the end of seven days, when Ivan had read the prayers
devoutly, he summoned his brothers. But they did not come. Both sent
messages saying that they were frightfully busy, and would he be so good
as to go on with the sacred duty until they could be spared to do their
share later on. Ivan accepted their messages, and went on reading the
prayers over the father's grave.

Meanwhile each of his brothers prepared for the grea