t you."

"What do you want for it?"

"Three copecks."

Well the orphan bought the kitten, and afterwards hired
himself to a merchant, to sit in his shop.

That merchant's business began to prosper wonderfully. He
couldn't supply goods fast enough; purchasers carried off everything
in a twinkling. The merchant got ready to go to sea,
freighted a ship, and said to the orphan:

"Give me your cat; maybe it will catch mice on board, and
amuse me."

"Pray take it, master! only if you lose it, I shan't let you off
cheap."

The merchant arrived in a far off land, and put up at an inn.
The landlord saw that he had a great deal of money, so he gave
him a bedroom which was infested by countless swarms of rats
and mice, saying to himself, "If they should happen to eat him
up, his money will belong to me." For in that country they knew
nothing about cats, and the rats and mice had completely got the
upper hand. Well the merchant took the cat with him to his
room and went to bed. Next morning the landlord came into
the room. There was the merchant alive and well, holding the
cat in his arms, and stroking its fur; the cat was purring away,
singing its song, and on the floor lay a perfect heap of dead rats
and mice!

"Master merchant, sell me that beastie," says the landlord.

"Certainly."

"What do you want for it?"

"A mere trifle. I'll make the beastie stand on his hind legs
while I hold him up by his forelegs, and you shall pile gold
pieces around him, so as just to hide him--I shall be content
with that!"

The landlord agreed to the bargain. The merchant gave him
the cat, received a sackful of gold, and as soon as he had settled
his affairs, started on his way back. As he sailed across the
seas, he thought:

"Why should I give the gold to that orphan? Such a lot of
money in return for a mere cat! that would be too much of a
good thing. No, much better keep it myself."

The moment he had made up his mind to the sin, all of a sudden
there arose a storm--such a tremendous one! the ship was
on the point of sinking.

"Ah, accursed one that I am! I've been longing for what
doesn't belong to me; O Lord, forgive me a sinner! I won't
keep back a single copeck."

The moment the merchant began praying the winds were
stilled, the sea became calm, and the ship went sailing on prosperously
to the quay.

"Hail, master!" say