them, and the
Drinker tossed them down one after another, one gulp for each barrel.
"Little enough," says he, "Why, I am thirsty still."

"Very good," says the Tzar to his servant, when he heard that they had
eaten all the food and drunk all the wine. "Tell the fellow to get
ready for the wedding, and let him go and bathe himself in the
bath-house. But let the bath-house be made so hot that the man will
stifle and frizzle as soon as he sets foot inside. It is an iron
bath-house. Let it be made red hot."

The Listener heard all this and told the Fool, who stopped short with
his mouth open in the middle of a joke.

"Don't you worry," says the moujik with the straw.

Well, they made the bath-house red hot, and called the Fool, and the
Fool went along to the bath-house to wash himself, and with him went
the moujik with the straw.

They shut them both into the bath-house, and thought that that was the
end of them. But the moujik scattered his straw before them as they
went in, and it became so cold in there that the Fool of the World had
scarcely time to wash himself before the water in the cauldrons froze
to solid ice. They lay down on the very stove itself, and spent the
night there, shivering.

In the morning the servants opened the bath-house, and there were the
Fool of the World and the moujik, alive and well, lying on the stove
and singing songs.

They told the Tzar, and the Tzar raged with anger. "There is no
getting rid of this fellow," says he. "But go and tell him that I send
him this message: 'If you are to marry my daughter, you must show that
you are able to defend her. Let me see that you have at least a
regiment of soldiers,'" Thinks he to himself, "How can a simple
peasant raise a troop? He will find it hard enough to raise a single
soldier."

The Listener told the Fool of the World, and the Fool began to lament.
"This time," says he, "I am done indeed. You, my brothers, have saved
me from misfortune more than once, but this time, alas, there is
nothing to be done."

"Oh, what a fellow you are!" says the peasant with the fagot of wood.
"I suppose you've forgotten about me. Remember that I am the man for
this little affair, and don't you worry about it at all."

The Tzar's servant came along and gave his message.

"Very good," says the Fool; "but tell the Tzar that if after this he
puts me off again, I'll make war on his country, and take the Princess
by force."

And then, as the servant went