“Very well then, let us marry,” said Emelyán. “Where shall we go to?”

“Let us go to town.”

So Emelyán and the lass went to town, and she took him to a small hut on the very edge of the town, and they married and began housekeeping.

One day the King, driving through the town, passed by Emelyán’s hut. Emelyán’s wife came out to see the King. The King noticed her and was quite surprised.

“Where did such a beauty come from?” said he, and stopping his carriage he called Emelyán’s wife and asked her: “Who are you?”

“The peasant Emelyán’s wife,” said she.

“Why did you, who are such a beauty, marry a peasant?” said the King. “You ought to be a queen!”

“Thank you for your kind words,” said she, “but a peasant husband is good enough for me.”