Then he made a snare from his own hair and caught a hazel-hen.

Last of all, he arranged the fire, and cooked such a quantity of different provisions that the idea even occurred to the Generals, "would it not be well to give the lazy fellow a little morsel ?" The Generals watched the peasant's efforts, and their hearts played merrily.

They had already forgotten that they had nearly died of hunger on the preceding day, and they thought, "What a good thing it is to be a general--then you never go to destruction anywhere." "Are you satisfied, Generals ?" asked the big, lazy peasant.
"We are satisfied, my dear friend, we perceive your zeal," replied the Generals.
"Will you not permit me to rest now ?" "Rest, my good friend, only first make us a rope." The peasant immediately collected wild hemp, soaked it in water, beat it, worked it--and by evening the rope was done.
With this rope the Generals bound the peasant to a tree so that he should not run away, and then they lay down to sleep.
One day passed, then another; the big, coarse peasant became so skilful that he even began to cook soup in the hollow of his hand.

Our Generals became jovial, light-hearted, fat, and white.

They began to say to each other that, here they were living with everything ready to hand while their pensions were accumulating and accumulating in Petersburg.
"What do you think, your Excellency, was there really a tower of Babel, or is that merely a fable ?" one General would say to the other, as they ate their breakfast.
"I think, your Excellency, that it really was built; because, otherwise, how can we explain the fact that many different languages exist in the world ?" "Then the flood must have occurred also ?" "The flood did happen, otherwise, how could the existence of antediluvian animals be explained?
The more so as it is announced in the 'Moscow News'...." "Shall we not read the 'Moscow News' ?" Then they would hunt up that copy, seat themselves in the shade, and read it through from end to end; what people had been eating in Moscow, eating in Tula, eating in Penza, eating in Ryazan--and it had no effect on them; it did not turn their stomachs.
In the long run, the Generals got bored.