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252 Then she went to her window and called to her all the bees in the white world, "Hail, ye bees my servants, do ye build me a church of your white wax, and let it be finished before the morning."

In the morning Iván got up, looked, and saw the church stood there made of clean wax, and he went to the Sea Tsar and reported.

"Thank you, Iván Tsarévich: of all the servants I have had, none of them have been able to do as well as you. Now be my heir and the preserver of my kingdom. Now select yourself a bride out of my twelve daughters. They are all alike, face for face, hair with hair, clothing with clothing. If you guess three times the same one, she shall be your bride; if you do not, you shall suffer."

Vasilísa the Wise learned of this, chose her opportunity, and said to the Tsarévich, "The first time I will wave my dress, the second time I will smooth my dress, and the third time there shall be a fly buzzing round my head." Thus he was able to guess Vasilísa all three times. And they were betrothed, and there was a merry feast for three days.

Time went by, may-be little, may-be much. Iván Tsarévich grew anxious to see his father and mother, and he wished to go back to Holy Russia.

"Why are you so grieved, Iván Tsarévich?"

"O Vasilísa the Wise, I am afflicted for my father and my mother, and desire to behold Holy Russia."

"If we go away there will be a mighty chase after us. The Sea Tsar will be wroth, and will give us over to death. We must be cunning." So Vasilísa spat in three corners, and the doors of her room opened, and she, with Iván Tsarévich, ran into Sacred Russia. On the second day, very early, an embassy came from the Sea Tsar to catch the young couple and to summon them into the palace, and they knocked on the door: "Wake up, get up from your sleep; your father is calling you."