.

The old devil, having finished with the second brother, went to Ivan the
Fool. This time he disguised himself as a General, the same as in the
case of Simeon, and, appearing before Ivan, said: "Get an army together.
It is disgraceful for the ruler of a kingdom to be without an army. You
call your people to assemble, and I will form them into a fine large
army."

Ivan took the supposed General's advice, and said: "Well, you may form
my people into an army, but you must also teach them to sing the songs I
like."

The old devil then went through Ivan's kingdom to secure recruits for
the army, saying: "Come, shave your heads [the heads of recruits are
always shaved in Russia] and I will give each of you a red hat and
plenty of vodki" (whiskey).

At this the fools only laughed, and said: "We can have all the vodki we
want, for we distill it ourselves; and of hats, our little girls make
all we want, of any color we please, and with handsome fringes."

Thus was the devil foiled in securing recruits for his army; so
he returned to Ivan and said: "Your fools will not volunteer to be
soldiers. It will therefore be necessary to force them."

"Very well," replied Ivan, "you may use force if you want to."

The old devil then announced that all the fools must become soldiers,
and those who refused, Ivan would punish with death.

The fools went to the General; and said: "You tell us that Ivan will
punish with death all those who refuse to become soldiers, but you have
omitted to state what will be done with us soldiers. We have been told
that we are only to be killed."

"Yes, that is true," was the reply.

The fools on hearing this became stubborn and refused to go.

"Better kill us now if we cannot avoid death, but we will not become
soldiers," they declared.

"Oh! you fools," said the old devil, "soldiers may and may not be
killed; but if you disobey Ivan's orders you will find certain death at
his hands."

The fools remained absorbed in thought for some time and finally went to
Ivan to question him in regard to the matter.

On arriving at his house they said: "A General came to us with an order
from you that we were all to become soldiers, and if we refused you were
to punish us with death. Is it true?"

Ivan began to laugh heartily on hearing this, and said: "Well, how I
alone can punish you with death is something I cannot understand. If I
was not a fool myself I would be able to explain it to you, but as it