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202 though Tzarevich Ivan wept a long time, there was no further word to be said, since one cannot go contrary to his fate.

So the sons of the Tzar were married—the eldest to the nobleman's daughter, the second to the daughter of the merchant, and the youngest, Tzarevich Ivan, was married to the frog. When the day came, he went to the Palace in a closed carriage and the frog was carried on a golden dish.

So they lived, a long time or a short time, and Tzarevich Ivan treated the frog with gentleness and kindness till a day came when the Tzar summoned his three sons before him and said: "Dear children, now that ye are wedded, I am minded to try the skill of my daughters-in-law in the arts of housewifery. Take from my storeroom, therefore, each of you, a piece of linen cloth, and his wife shall make of it a shirt which he shall bring to me to-morrow morning."

The two elder brothers took the linen to their wives, who at once called together their maid-servants and nurses and all set to work busily to cut the stuff and to sew it. And as they worked they laughed to think of Tzarevich Ivan, saying: "What will his little Quacker make for him to bring to the Tzar to-morrow?" But Tzarevich Ivan