Once upon a time there lived a grandfather, a father, a mother and a son. First the father died, then the grandfather. Grandfather left his grandson three hundred roubles.

The boy wanted to go to town and asked his mother, "Give me, a hundred roubles, I'm going to town."

Walking around in town he met a man who had a little dog with him. The man said to the boy, "I have this dog for sale."

"How much does he cost?"

"A hundred roubles."

The boy bought the dog. When he went back home he got a scolding from his mother. "What a silly boy you are! Today you bought a mongrel. What is it going to be tomorrow, maybe a cat?"

The next day the boy set off to town again and once more asked his mother to give him a hundred roubles. As it was his grandfather's legacy, the mother couldn't refuse the boy.

The boy went to town and met a man who had a cat tucked under his arm.

"I have this cat for sale," the man told the boy.

"How much does she cost?"

"A hundred roubles."

The boy bought the cat. At home he got a severe scolding from his mother.

"Aren't you a silly fool! Yesterday you bought a mongrel, today a cat.... What is it going to be tomorrow? A ring, maybe?"

On the third day the boy set off again and asked his mother to give him the last hundred roubles.

In town he met a man who was holding a ring on his palm. The man said, "I have this ring for sale."

The boy asked the price of the ring.

"A hundred roubles," the man said.

The boy bought the ring.

The man said to him, "It's a magic ring. If there's anything you want, slip it from one palm onto the other, and three men will appear and ask what you wish for. Everything you wish you will get."

Years passed. The boy grew into a young man. One day he slipped the ring from one palm onto the other. At once three men appeared and asked, "What do you wish?"

The young man said he wanted to have a beautiful house like a castle. Immediately a beautiful castle stood there.

"Wish for a river to flow beyond the castle," his mother said.

The young man went out and made the wish. He wished for a river to flow beyond the castle with fish and ducks swimming in it. And at once his wish came true.

Far away, in another kingdom, there lived a princess. The young man would've liked to take her to wife. He slipped the ring from one palm onto the other and said he'd like to marry that princess. Right away she appeared in his castle.

They went to church to get married.

The boy again slipped the ring from one palm onto the other and made a wish: "On our way to church, I want apple-trees to blossom by the roadside, and when we return, let the apples be ripe in the trees."

That was just the way it happened.

The young couple lived happily in their magnificent castle. After a while the princess became curious and asked her husband how he had become so rich. The man showed her the ring and told her the whole story.

The princess began to scheme how she could take the ring from her husband and have it for herself.

One night in bed the man let himself be persuaded to give the ring to her. The princess went out, slipped the ring from one palm onto the other and said, "I wish that my husband would become as poor as he used to be and I want to be taken back to where I came from."

The man woke up in the morning: neither his wife nor the ring was there. He himself was back in his old poor cabin.

The king had the man locked up in a tower. He was now a prisoner.

The cat said to the dog, "Do you know, Lop-ear, where our master is? Our master is locked up in a tower. How can we find out where the ring is?"

The cat and the dog went to see their master. They scraped a hole under the wall of the tower and got in. Their master then told them that the princess had the ring. The dog and the cat went to the kingdom where the princess lived. They went into the kitchen of the castle and saw the princess there.

The cat admonished the dog. "If we're beaten, don't take offence."

The children in the kitchen beat them and chased them out. But the housekeeper rebuked them, "Stop beating the dog and the cat, better go and fetch some wood."

The dog ran out at once and brought firewood into the kitchen. The housekeeper again commanded the children, "Don't tease the cat, go and sweep the floor."

When the cat heard this, she seized the broom and swept the floor clean. Now they both were allowed to stay inside for the night, otherwise they'd have been chased out. The dog remained in the kitchen, the cat slept in the room. At night the cat saw a little mouse run across the floor. She caught it.

The mouse begged her, "Let me go, Pussy-cat. I know what brought you here. I know where the ring is. The ring is in the princess's mouth at night. I'll go to her and tickle her nose with my tail, she'll sneeze and drop the ring onto the floor."

And that's what the mouse did. The princess sneezed and the ring rolled onto the floor. The cat picked it up and put it into her mouth, then she ran to the dog and cried, "Lop-ear, let's go to the prison now!"

They walked until they reached the sea. There they had a quarrel because the cat couldn't swim.

The dog said, "Give the ring to me, I'll keep it in my mouth."

The cat argued, "No, I won't, you have a wide mouth and you'll drop the ring into the water."

The cat wouldn't give the ring to the dog, and the dog refused to take the cat across the sea.

"You'll become the master's favourite," the dog wailed.

Anxiously the cat handed the ring over to the dog. The dog let the cat jump on his back and began to swim across the sea. When he had been swimming for some time the dog grew tired, began to pant and opened his mouth. The ring fell into the water. The cat was furious and began to claw the dog.

"What'll we do now, Lop-ear! I'm not going to stay with you any longer. Go away from here! I'm going to stay here with the fishermen, I'll make a fire for them. You go where you want to."

The fishermen let indeed the cat stay with them. The dog brought them some firewood and he, too, was allowed to stay. The fishermen caught some fish. In the evening their housekeeper began to clean the fish and the cat saw her take the ring out from inside a fish. The housekeeper placed it on a shelf under a bowl. Later the cat got hold of the ring and said to the dog, "Lop-ear, let's try to cross the sea again but I won't give the ring to you."

The dog didn't want the ring, either. So they crossed the sea and went to the prison. Again they crept under the wall into the tower and handed the ring over to their master.

The man slipped the ring from one palm onto the other. Once again he was asked what it was that he wished.

"I wish that the prison walls would fall apart and all the people in it be freed."

So it happened and people were free again.

The man went home with his dog and cat. The home was as poor as it used to be. The man made a wish and asked back his castle as well as the princess from the far-away kingdom. So it came about that he again had a fine castle to live in and a princess for a wife, and maybe they're still living there.

David Bocchi

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