“What kind of people are you whose field is so well cultivated?”

One of the seven brothers, the eldest of them, answered: 

“We are all thy peasants, simpletons, without any wisdom, born of peasant parents, all of us children of the same father and the same mother, and all having the same name, Simeon.  Our old father taught us to pray to God, to obey thee, to pay taxes faithfully, and besides to work and toil without rest.  He also taught to each of us a trade, for the old saying is, ‘A trade is no burden, but a profit.’  The old father wished us to keep our trades for a cloudy day, but never to forsake our own fields, and always to be contented, and plow and harrow diligently.

“He also used to say, ’If one does not neglect the mother earth, but thoroughly harrows and sows in due season, then she, our mother, will reward generously, and will give plenty of bread, besides preparing a soft place for the everlasting rest when one is old and tired of life.’”

The Tsar Archidei liked the simple answer of the peasant, and said: 

“Take my praise, brave good fellows, my peasants, tillers of the soil, sowers of wheat, gatherers of gold.  And now tell me, what trades did your father teach you, and what do you know?”

The first Simeon answered: 

“My trade is not a very wise one.  If thou wouldst let me have materials and working men, then I could build a post, a white stone column, reaching beyond the clouds, almost to the sky.”

“Good enough!” exclaimed the Tsar Archidei.  “And thou, the second Simeon, what is thy trade?”

The second Simeon was quick to give answer: 

“My trade is a simple one.  If my brother will build a white stone column, I can climb upon that column high up in the sky, and I shall see from above all the empires and all the kingdoms under the sun, and everything which is going on in those foreign countries.”

“Thy trade is not so bad either,” and the Tsar smiled and looked at the third brother.  “And thou, third Simeon, what trade is thine?”

The third Simeon also had his answer ready: 

“My trade is simple, too; that is to say, a peasant’s trade.  If thou art in need of ships, thy learned men of foreign birth build them for thee as well as their wisdom teaches them.  But if thou wilt order, I will build them simply—­one, two! and the ship is ready.  My ships will be the result of the quick headwork of a peasant simpleton.  But where a foreign ship sails a year, mine will sail an hour, and where others take ten years, mine will take not longer than a week.”

“Well, well!” laughed the Tsar.  “And thy trade, the fourth Simeon?” he asked.

The fourth brother bowed.

“My trade needs no wisdom either.  If my brother will build thee a ship, I then will sail that ship; and if an enemy gives chase or a tempest rises, I’ll seize the ship by the black prow and plunge her into the deep waters where there is eternal quiet; and after the storm is over or the enemy far, I’ll again guide her to the surface of the wide sea.”