and hid it. After it was all over
the little Tsar said to her, "As thou hast been such a false friend to
me, sister, thou must remain here while I go into another kingdom."
Then he made two buckets and hung them up on the whitethorn-tree, and
said to his sister, "Look now, sister! if thou weepest for me, this
bucket will fill with tears, but if thou weepest for the serpent that
bucket will fill with blood!" Then she fell a-weeping and praying, and
said to him, "Don't leave me, brother, but take me with thee."--"I
won't," said he; "such a false friend as thou art I'll not have with
me. Stay where thou art." So he mounted his horse, called to him his
dogs and his beasts, and went his way into another kingdom and into
another empire.

He went on and on till he came to a certain city, and in this city
there was only one spring, and in this spring sat a dragon with twelve
heads. And it was so that when any went to draw water from this well
the dragon rose up and ate them, and there was no other place whence
that city could draw its water. So the little Tsar came to that town
and put up at the stranger's inn, and he asked his host, "What is the
meaning of all this running and crying of the people in the
streets?"--"Why, dost thou not know?" said he; "it is the turn of the
Tsar to send his daughter to the dragon!"--Then he went out and
listened, and heard the people say, "The Tsar proclaims that whoever
is able to slay the dragon, to him will he give his daughter and
one-half of his tsardom!" Then little Tsar Novishny stepped forth and
said, "I am able to slay this evil dragon!" So all the people
immediately sent and told the Tsar, "A stranger has come hither who
says he is ready to meet and slay the dragon." Then the Tsar bade them
take him to the watch-house and put him among the guards.

Then they led out the Tsarivna, and behind her they led him, and
behind him came his beasts and his horse. And the Tsarivna was so
lovely and so richly attired that all who beheld her burst into tears.
But the moment the dragon appeared and opened his mouth to devour the
Tsarivna, the little Tsar cried to his self-slicing sword, "Fall upon
him!" and to his beasts he cried, "Protius! Medvedik! Vovchok!
Nedviga! Seize him!" Then the self-slicing sword and the beasts fell
upon him, and tore him into little bits. When they had finished
tearing him, the little Tsar took the remains of the body and burnt
them to ashes, and the little fox took u