Page:Russian Fairy Book (N. H. Dole).djvu/88

 maidens and all the nobles of his court to accompany the beautiful queen into the open field.

Meantime Prince Ivan had been on his way with the real Helena, and was talking with her, and he forgot all about the Gray Wolf, when suddenly he remembered: "Ah, where is my Gray Wolf?"

And instantly arriving from somewhere the Gray Wolf stood before Prince Ivan and said to him: "Mount me, Prince Ivan, mount the Gray Wolf, and let the beautiful queen ride on the gold-maned horse."

Prince Ivan mounted the Gray Wolf, and they rode together to Tsar Dolmat's realm. How long they rode no one knows, but when they reached that realm they stopped three miles from the city. Prince Ivan began to ask the Gray Wolf:

"Listen, my dear friend, Gray Wolf, you have done me many a service. Serve me in this last affair also. Couldn't you turn into the gold-maned horse? Because it seems to me as if I could not part with this gold-maned horse!"

Suddenly the Gray Wolf struck the moist earth and turned into a gold-maned horse. Prince Ivan left the beautiful Queen Helena in a green meadow with the real horse, mounted the Gray Wolf, and rode to the palace, to Tsar Dolmat.