rouble in the child's swaddling clothes, and
gave it back to the mother. The same thing happened at the birth of each
successive child, until there were twelve. On the birth of the last
child, the lady said to the mother, "Henceforward you will see me no
more, though I shall invisibly watch over you and your children daily.
The water of the well will benefit the children more than the best food.
When the time comes for your daughters to marry, you must give each the
rouble which I brought as their godmother's gift. Until then, do not let
them dress finely, but let them wear clean dresses and clean linen both
on week-days and Sundays."

The children grew and throve so well that it was a delight to see them.
There was plenty of bread in the house, though sometimes little else,
but both parents and children seemed to be chiefly strengthened by the
water of the well. In due time the eldest daughter was married to the
son of a prosperous innkeeper. Although she brought him nothing beyond
her most needful clothing, yet a bridal chest was made, and her clothes
and her godmother's rouble put into it. But when the men lifted the
chest into the cart, they found it so heavy that they thought it must be
full of stones, for the poor labourer could not have given his daughter
anything of value. But great was the young bride's amazement when she
opened the chest in her husband's house and found it filled with pieces
of linen, and at the bottom a leathern purse containing a hundred
silver roubles. The same thing happened after every fresh marriage, and
the daughters were soon all betrothed when it became known that each
received such a bridal portion.

One of the sons-in-law was a very avaricious man, and was not satisfied
with his wife's bridal portion. He thought that the parents themselves
must be possessed of great riches, if they could bestow so much on each
daughter. So he went one day to his father-in-law, and began to pester
him about his supposed treasure. The labourer told him the exact truth.
"I have nothing but my body and soul, and could not give my daughters
anything but the chests. I have nothing to do with what each found in
her chest. It is the gift of the godmother, who gave each of the
children a rouble at her christening, and this has multiplied itself in
the chests." The avaricious son-in-law would not believe him, and
threatened to denounce the old man as a wizard and wind-sorcerer, who
had amassed a large treas