van. But as
the she-dragon couldn't run herself, she sent her husband, and he
began chasing them, and they knew he was coming, for they felt the
earth trembling beneath his tread. Then the she-dragon's daughter said
to Ivan, "I hear him running after us. I'll turn myself into standing
wheat and thee into an old man guarding me, and if he ask thee, 'Hast
thou seen a lad and a lass pass by this way?' say to him, 'Yes, they
passed by this way while I was sowing this wheat!'"

A little while afterward the she-dragon's husband came flying up.
"Have a lad and a lass passed by this way?" said he. "Yes," replied
the old man, "they have."--"Was it long ago?" asked the she-dragon's
husband.--"It was while this wheat was being sown," replied the old
man.--"Oh!" thought the dragon, "this wheat is ready for the sickle,
they couldn't have been this way yesterday," so he turned back. Then
the she-dragon's daughter turned herself back into a maiden and the
old man into a youth, and off they set again. But the dragon returned
home, and the she-dragon asked him, "What! hast thou not caught them
or met them on the road?"--"Met them, no!" said he. "I did, indeed,
pass on the road some standing wheat and an old man watching it, and
I asked the old man if he had seen a lad and a lass pass by that way,
and he said, 'Yes, while this wheat was being sown,' but the wheat was
quite ripe for the sickle, so I knew it was a long while ago and
turned back."--"Why didst thou not tear that old man and the wheat to
pieces?" cried the she-dragon; "it was they! Be off after them again,
and mind, this time tear them to pieces without fail."

So the dragon set off after them again, and they heard him coming from
afar, for the earth trembled beneath him, so the damsel said to Ivan,
"He's coming again, I hear him; now I'll change myself into a
monastery, so old that it will be almost falling to pieces, and I'll
change thee into an old black monk at the gate, and when he comes up
and asks, 'Hast thou seen a lad and a lass pass this way?' say to him,
'Yes, they passed by this way when this monastery was being built.'"
Soon afterward the dragon came flying past, and asked the monk, "Hast
thou seen a lad and a lass pass by this way?"--"Yes," he replied, "I
saw them what time the holy fathers began to build this monastery."
The dragon thought to himself, "That was not yesterday! This monastery
has stood a hundred years if it has stood a day, and won't stand much