They were both overjoyed when the woman gave birth to a son.
“I hope he will grow up to be tall and strong, so he can help us in the fields!” said her husband.
They named him Ilya, and took good care of him.
Alas, they soon discovered that their child could not walk. Every day, his parents would put him in a basket on top of the brick oven to keep warm before they went out to work. As the years went by, Ilya grew up, but he stayed weak and was unable to stand on his own.
One day, when Ilya was twenty-eight summers old, some visitors
