all but tore us utterly
to pieces."

"Well, to-morrow run off into the blue sea."

Again did Prince Ivan sleep through the night. Next morning
the Baba Yaga sent him forth to watch the mares:

"If you don't take good care of them," says she, "your bold
head will be stuck on that pole!"

He drove the mares afield. Immediately they cocked up
their tails, disappeared from sight, and fled into the blue sea.
There they stood, up to their necks in water. Prince Ivan sat
down on the stone, wept, and fell asleep. But when the sun had
set behind the forest, up came flying a bee and said:--

"Arise, Prince! The mares are all collected. But when
you get home, don't let the Baba Yaga set eyes on you, but go
into the stable and hide behind the mangers. There you will
find a sorry colt rolling in the muck. Do you steal it, and at
the dead of night ride away from the house."

Prince Ivan arose, slipped into the stable, and lay down behind
the mangers, while the Baba Yaga was storming away at
her mares and shrieking:--

"Why did ye come back?"

"How could we help coming back? There came flying bees
in countless numbers from all parts of the world, and began
stinging us on all sides till the blood came!"

The Baba Yaga went to sleep. In the dead of the night
Prince Ivan stole the sorry colt, saddled it, jumped on its back,
and galloped away to the fiery river. When he came to that river
he waved the handkerchief three times on the right hand, and
suddenly, springing goodness knows whence, there hung across
the river, high in the air, a splendid bridge. The Prince rode
across the bridge and waved the handkerchief twice only on the
left hand; there remained across the river a thin--ever so thin
a bridge!

When the Baba Yaga got up in the morning, the sorry colt
was not to be seen! Off she set in pursuit. At full speed did
she fly in her iron mortar, urging it on with the pestle, sweeping
away her traces with the broom. She dashed up to the fiery
river, gave a glance, and said, "A capital bridge!" She drove
on to the bridge, but had only got half-way when the bridge
broke in two, and the Baba Yaga went flop into the river. There
truly did she meet with a cruel death!

Prince Ivan fattened up the colt in the green meadows, and
it turned into a wondrous steed. Then he rode to where Marya
Morevna was. She came running out, and flung herself