Page:Russian Fairy Book (N. H. Dole).djvu/143

 the field, they began to switch their tails, and all of them darted in different directions across the meadows. The prince could not follow them with his eyes, so quickly did they disappear from sight. Then he wept and mourned, and he sat down on a stone and fell asleep. The dear sun was already setting when a strange bird flew up to him and awoke him.

"Wake up, Prince Ivan, the mares are at home now!" The prince got up, went home, and the Baba Yaga was making a clamor and shouting to her mares: "What have you come home for?"

"Why shouldn't we come home?" they answered. "Birds came flying from all over the world, and they almost pecked our eyes out."

"Well, then, see that to-morrow you don't go to the meadows, but scatter through the thick forest."

Prince Ivan slept all night, and in the morning the Baba Yaga said to him: "Look here, prince! If you do not watch the mares well, if a single one is lost, your proud head will adorn the stake."

He drove the mares out to pasture. Instantly they switched their tails and scattered through the thick forest.

Again the prince sat down on a stone and wept and wept and fell asleep. The dear sun was