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Rh whereon, though my poor horse perish, I at least shall keep my life." So he reined to the right.

He rode one day, he rode two days, he rode three days, and on the morning of the fourth day, as he led his horse through a forest, a great Gray Wolf leaped from a thicket. "Thou art a brave lad, Tzarevich Ivan," said the Wolf, "but didst thou not read what was written on the rock?" When the Wolf had spoken these words he seized the horse, and tearing it in pieces, devoured it and disappeared.

Tzarevich Ivan wept bitterly over the loss of his horse. The whole day he walked, till his weariness could not be told in a tale. He was near to faint from weakness, when again he met the Gray Wolf. "Thou art a brave lad, Tzarevich Ivan," said the Wolf, "and for this reason I feel pity for thee. I have eaten thy good horse, but I will serve thee a service in payment. Sit now on my back and say whither I shall bear thee and wherefore."

Tzarevich Ivan seated himself on the back of the Wolf joyfully enough. "Take me, Gray Wolf," he said, "to the Glowing Bird that stole my father's golden apples," and instantly the Wolf sped away, twenty times swifter than the swiftest horse. In the middle of the night he stopped at a stone wall.

"Get down from my back, Tzarevich Ivan," said