ve you been so long?"

"I have been in service," said Ivan, "and now I'm going home to my
wife."

"Oh, come with us! you'll be right welcome." But when they took the new
road Ivan kept to the old one. And robbers fell upon them before they
had gone far from Ivan as they were going by the fields of the houses
in the meadow. They began to cry out, "Thieves!" and Ivan shouted out
"Thieves!" too. And when the robbers heard Ivan's shout they ran away,
and the merchants went by the new road and Ivan by the old one till
they met again at Market-Jew.

"Oh, Ivan," said the merchants, "we are beholding to you; but for you
we would have been lost men. Come lodge with us at our cost, and
welcome."

When they came to the place where they used to lodge, Ivan said, "I
must see the host."

"The host," they cried; "what do you want with the host? Here is the
hostess, and she's young and pretty. If you want to see the host you'll
find him in the kitchen."

So he went into the kitchen to see the host; he found him a weak old
man turning the spit.

"Oh! oh!" quoth Ivan, "I'll not lodge here, but will go next door."

"Not yet," said the merchants, "sup with us, and welcome."

Now it happened that the hostess had plotted with a certain monk in
Market-Jew to murder the old man in his bed that night while the rest
were asleep, and they agreed to lay it on the lodgers.

So while Ivan was in bed next door, there was a hole in the pine-end of
the house, and he saw a light through it. So he got up and looked, and
heard the monk speaking. "I had better cover this hole," said he, "or
people in the next house may see our deeds." So he stood with his back
against it while the hostess killed the old man.

But meanwhile Ivan out with his knife, and putting it through the hole,
cut a round piece off the monk's robe. The very next morning the
hostess raised the cry that her husband was murdered, and as there was
neither man nor child in the house but the merchants, she declared they
ought to be hanged for it.

So they were taken and carried to prison, till a last Ivan came to
them. "Alas! alas! Ivan," cried they, "bad luck sticks to us; our host
was killed last night, and we shall be hanged for it."

"Ah, tell the justices," said Ivan, "to summon the real murderers."

"Who knows," they replied, "who committed the crime?"

"Who committed the crime!" said Ivan. "If I cannot prove who committed
the crime, hang me in your stead."

So he t