ngry before, but now he was angrier.

"What?" he screamed. "I am little, am I? Well, see what little does!"

And with that he grabbed an old crust of bread, leapt on Evening's
shoulders, and began beating him over the head. Yes, and the little
fellow was so strong he beat Evening till he was half dead, and was
blind in one eye and could not see out of the other. Then, when he was
tired, he threw Evening under the bench, took the sheep out of the
cauldron, gobbled it up in a few mouthfuls, and, when he had done,
went off again into the forest.

[Footnote 4: The little man was really one arshin high, and his beard
was seven arshins long. An arshin is 0.77 of a yard, so any one who
knows decimals can tell exactly how high the little man was and the
precise length of his beard.]

When Evening came to his senses again, he bound up his head with a
dishcloth, and lay on the ground and groaned.

Midnight and Sunrise rode back, on the black horse and the white, and
came to the hut, where they found their brother groaning on the
ground, unable to see out of his eyes, and with a dishcloth round his
head.

"What are you tied up like that for?" they asked; "and where is our
dinner?"

Evening was ashamed to tell them the truth--how he had been thumped
about with a crust of bread by a little fellow only a yard high. He
moaned and said,--

"O my brothers, I made a fire in the stove, and fell ill from the
great heat in this little hut. My head ached. All day I lay senseless,
and could neither boil nor roast. I thought my head would burst with
the heat, and my brains fly beyond the seventh world."

Next day Sunrise went hunting with Evening, whose head was still bound
up in a dishcloth, and hurting so sorely that he could hardly see.
Midnight stayed at home. It was his turn to see to the dinner. Sunrise
rode out on his cloud-white horse, and Evening on his dusky brown.
Midnight stood in the doorway of the hut, watched them disappear among
the green trees, and then set about getting the dinner.

He lit the fire, but was careful not to make it too hot. Then he went
into the yard, caught the very fattest of the sheep, killed it,
skinned it, cleaned it, cut it up, and set it on the stove. Then, when
all was ready, he lay down on the bench and rested himself.

But before he had lain there long there were a knocking, a stamping, a
rattling, a grumbling, and in came the little old man, one yard high,
with a beard seven yards lon