Olive Beaupré Miller

The Two Bad Bargains

In days gone by, there lived a couple who had one only son named Vladimir. Now Vladimir was a lad both strong and of good courage, yet of so compassionate a heart that if he saw but a dog in trouble, nothing would do but he must stop and help it. After his schooling was finished, Vladimir's father gave him a ship freighted with various sorts of merchandise and bade him go trading about the world and grow rich. Vladimir put to sea at once, in high spirits and good hope, his head full of visions of mighty fortunes to win; but he was not gone many days from port when he met a vessel swarming with savage Turks, from whence he heard noise of much weeping and wailing. Boldly Vladimir drew alongside the Turkish vessel and demanded, "Why comes there such noise of weeping from out your hold?"

The Turkish sailors made answer with ugly grins, "We have captured a ship load of slaves to sell in the great slave market of Stamboul. It is those who are chained that are weeping."

Then Vladimir must needs cry out, "How much are they worth—your ship load of slaves?" and the Captain of the slave ship answered, "As much as the value of all your lading!"

Now Vladimir saw trembling before him all his visions of fortune, if he traded his cargo to good advantage, yet the weeping of those unhappy slaves went tugging at his heart strings, and tugging, and tugging, till at last he cried out, "I will trade all my merchandise for those poor creatures."

The Captain agreed, you may be sure, and the exchange was made on the spot. Vladimir gave up all his cargo and took the slaves instead. As they came aboard and passed him by, he asked each one whence he came and told him he was free to go home. One and all, they fell with great joy at his feet. Only at the very last, there came before him an old woman who held close to her side a pale and beautiful maiden. This old woman still continued to weep.

"For," said she, "our home is so far and so far away that we can never get back again. This maid is sole daughter to a mighty king, and I am her nurse. One day we wandered in the garden too far from the palace, and the Turks fell upon us and dragged us off prisoners. Since then we have sailed both weeks and months. We shall never find our way back. Pray let us remain with you."

So Vladimir set the other slaves ashore, but he felt great pity for the beautiful maiden, and seeing she had no place whatever to go, he married her and set off for home. When he arrived with an empty vessel and naught but a penniless maid and a poor old woman to show for his cargo, his father was furiously angry.

"My foolish son!" he cried. "What have you done? Made away with a rich and valuable cargo and brought home two empty mouths to feed!" Then he closed to him the door of his house, bade him take his young bride and go about his business.

So Vladimir and Helena and the good nurse lived in great poverty, but the two young people so dearly loved each other, that even in their poor little hut with naught but hard work and the coarsest of food to eat, they were happy. Only Vladimir felt some blot on his joy because of his father's anger. At last, after some time, the father's heart softened; he took pity on his son and received him again to his house with his wife and her nurse. Then he gave him another vessel and said:

"Now, my son, you have seen the consequences of your last foolish bargain. Do not repeat your folly. Trade this merchandise to your own advantage and come back rich!"

So Vladimir was full of gratitude and joy, and leaving Helena in his father's care, he set out with more alluring visions of fortune even than those he had had before. But when he put into the very first port, what should he see coming toward him but a miserable procession of prisoners, with a white haired old man at the head, being driven harshly along by soldiers.

"Where are you driving these poor prisoners?" cried Vladimir.

"They cannot pay the King's taxes," cried the soldiers. "They shall rot in dungeons until they do!"

Now, Vladimir, remembering his father's words, tried to turn away from the pitiful sight and set about selling his cargo with great exercise of worldly wisdom, but the look of those poor prisoners and the sound of their cries were ever in his heart. For the life of him, he could not hold back. He went straight to the chief magistrate of the city and gave him all his merchandise to pay up their debts and set them free. Then he returned home with an empty vessel and not a single copper to show. Falling at his father's feet, he told him what he had done and begged his forgiveness, but this time the father drove him still more sternly out of his presence.

Long were the days when Vladimir and his bride were forbidden the father's home, but fathers are fathers, and I doubt not the mother was ever pleading for her son, for, however that may be, the father yielded again at last, took his son to his heart and prepared a vessel for him still finer than the other two.

"Behold," said he, "your last chance to win fortune."

Now ere Vladimir departed, he had the portrait of his wife's old nurse painted on the stern of his ship and on the prow the face of Helena herself, beautiful as the sunrise making rosy the snow-capped Carpathians; beautiful as the moonlight gleaming across the Danube. Then once more he took leave of his loved ones and made off.

He sailed both weeks and months, and at last he dropped anchor in the bay of a great city where dwelt a mighty king. All the citizens came swarming to the anchorage to examine this strange ship and in the afternoon the King himself proceeded thither in state to ask who the captain was and what was his business there. But no sooner had the King come close to the ship than he saw on the prow the portrait of that wondrously beautiful maiden. Scarcely could he believe his eyes. Instantly he ordered that the captain be brought before him.

"Stranger-from-no-one-knows-where," he cried, "why have you painted on the prow the face of that beautiful maid?"

Then Vladimir told him all his tale, but no sooner had he finished than the King held out his arms with tears in his eyes, and held him in close embrace.

"That girl is my only child!" he cried, "stolen from me these many years!" And when he had made an end to weeping for joy, he took Vladimir to the palace and told the good news to the Queen and the Court. Then was Vladimir proclaimed heir to the King and great was the rejoicing and festivity everywhere. Only the King's Chief Minister was silent and sullen, for to him the hand of the Princess had been promised when she was but a child and he had no mind to lose her now. The King soon gave Vladimir splendid gifts for his own mother and father and a much finer ship than his own, then he bade him go home at once to bring Helena and all his family back to court.

"Your father shall be my brother, your mother my sister," he said.

Now Vladimir was overjoyed to obey, only he begged the King to send with him one of his Ministers that his father might not disbelieve the strange tale he should have to tell. So whom should the King give Vladimir for companion, but that same Minister who wanted the Princess himself. All through the voyage, the Minister wore a fair face and made pretence to be Vladimir's friend, but his heart was dark, and he said to himself, "When once the girl is safe in my power, I'll make an end of this troublesome fellow."

They arrived safely in port and Vladimir's father was surprised to see his son return in such splendid state. "It must be you have learned at last to make a shrewd bargain!" he cried, but Vladimir answered smiling, "Nay, nay, 'tis to my first bad bargain my fortune is due." And he told his father all his tale. Then was the father astounded, but as the Chief Minister was there to bear witness to the truth of the matter, no one could doubt it. The Princess was overjoyed to think of seeing her father and mother again, and the good nurse likewise, so they all set out for that distant kingdom.

Now the Chief Minister had found Helena ten times more beautiful even than he remembered, and so he was more determined than ever to be rid of her young husband. When they had sailed a long distance and the night was dark, he summoned Vladimir to a lonely spot on the deck. The young man came with no thought of evil, but as he drew near, the Chief Minister seized him and hurled him overboard. The next morning, finding that he had disappeared, Helena and his mother and father began to lament. "Alas and alack! He has fallen overboard and been lost," the false Minister said, pretending great grief, and then he devoted himself to comforting the Princess.

Meantime, Vladimir was carried along by the waves and dashed upon a huge, barren rock. When morning came, he saw nothing about him but a dreary waste of waters, and there he must sit, scorched by the sun, with no shelter whatever and nothing at all to eat but a kind of moss that grew there. For fifteen days and fifteen nights there he sat, and how was he ever to be got off? At last and at last he saw a small boat coming toward him. He rose and made frantic signals, but little he knew whether the man in the boat would come to his aid or not, for the rock was jagged and dangerous and the waves came beating fiercely upon it, so landing was well nigh impossible. But as the man drew near enough to see Vladimir's face, lo! he stood up in the boat and in his features shone a light that was brighter than the sun. Straight he made toward the dangerous shore, for the man was none other than the white haired old fellow who had marched at the head of the prisoners Vladimir had saved from the dungeons. And let the waves beat how they would, he steered his boat up to the rocks and took Vladimir safely off. Then he bore him to the very village where the poor prisoners still were dwelling. One and all, they crowded to help him. They gave him food and new clothing and cheered him off on his way.

For thirty days more, Vladimir wandered, till his clothes were ragged as before and his face scarce to be recognized for the tan and long-grown beard. In this fashion he arrived at the palace of the King. He knocked for admittance at the garden gate, but the gardener, not knowing him at all, drove him away. Soon there came by the King with Vladimir's mother, the Queen with Vladimir's father, and Helena herself, conversing with the Minister. At sight of her, apparently so forgetful of him, Vladimir bowed his head and covered his face with his hands. Nevertheless, as his wife passed him by, she saw the wedding ring on his finger and stopped in great agitation to ask him where he got it.

"Nay, how can you speak to that dirty beggar?" asked the Minister, dragging her off. But Helena was greatly troubled, and as soon as she reached the palace, she told the King, her father, how she had recognized her husband's ring and urged him to send for the beggar and ask him how he came by it. So the King sent his servants to fetch the beggar, and as soon as Helena looked full in his face she knew him. Then she cast herself into his arms and there was great rejoicing. As to the Minister, when the Great King heard of his treachery, he was publicly disgraced and banished forever from the land. And when they were all once more united and happy, a little bird came and whispered into the ear of Vladimir's father:

"After all, is it so fruitless—your son's kind of bargaining?"