“Throw it away,” she said, giving it back to Petro.

Petro threw it, and what wonder was this? the flower did not fall straight to the earth, but for a long while twinkled like a fiery ball through the darkness, and swam through the air like a boat:  at last it began to sink lower and lower, and fell so far away, that the little star, hardly larger than a poppy-seed, was barely visible.  “Here!” croaked the old woman, in a dull voice:  and Basavriuk, giving him a spade, said:  “Dig here, Petro:  here you will see more gold than you or Korzh ever dreamed of.”

Petro spat on his hands, seized the spade, applied his foot, and turned up the earth, a second, a third, a fourth time. . . .  There was something hard:  the spade clinked, and would go no farther.  Then his eyes began to distinguish a small, iron-bound coffer.  He tried to seize it; but the chest began to sink into the earth, deeper, farther, and deeper still:  and behind him he heard a laugh, more like a serpent’s hiss.  “No, you shall not see the gold until you procure human blood,” said the witch, and led up to him a child of six, covered with a white sheet, indicating by a sign that he was to cut off his head.  Petro was stunned.  A trifle, indeed, to cut off a man’s, or even an innocent child’s, head for no reason whatever!  In wrath he tore off the sheet enveloping his head, and behold! before him stood Ivas.  And the poor child crossed his little hands, and hung his head. . . .  Petro flew upon the witch with the knife like a madman, and was on the point of laying hands on her. . . .

“What did you promise for the girl?” . . . thundered Basavriuk; and like a shot he was on his back.  The witch stamped her foot:  a blue flame flashed from the earth; it illumined it all inside, and it was as if moulded of crystal; and all that was within the earth became visible, as if in the palm of the hand.  Ducats, precious stones in chests and kettles, were piled in heaps beneath the very spot they stood on.  His eyes burned, . . . his mind grew troubled. . . .  He grasped the knife like a madman, and the innocent blood spurted into his eyes.  Diabolical laughter resounded on all sides.  Misshaped monsters flew past him in herds.  The witch, fastening her hands in the headless trunk, like a wolf drank its blood. . . .  All went round in his head.  Collecting all his strength, he set out to run.  Everything turned red before him.  The trees seemed steeped in blood, and burned and groaned.  The sky glowed and glowered. . . .  Burning points, like lightning, flickered before his eyes.  Utterly exhausted, he rushed into his miserable hovel, and fell to the ground like a log.  A death-like sleep overpowered him.

Two days and two nights did Petro sleep, without once awakening.  When he came to himself, on the third day, he looked long at all the corners of his hut; but in vain did he endeavor to recollect; his memory was like a miser’s pocket, from which you cannot entice a quarter of a kopek.  Stretching himself, he heard something clash at his feet.  He looked, . . . two bags of gold.  Then only, as if in a dream, he recollected that he had been seeking some treasure, that something had frightened him in the woods. . . .  But at what price he had obtained it, and how, he could by no means understand.