Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/258

216 this comes to me? Until now I have neither seen with my eyes nor heard with my ears the spirit of any Russian; but to-day it is a Russian who enters my house! Well, Tzarevich Ivan, camest thou hither from thine own wish, or because thou wast compelled?"

"Enough by my own will and twice as much by force," answered Tzarevich Ivan. "But for shame, thou, that thou hast not offered me to eat and to drink, and prepared me a bath!"

Then the Baba-Yaga, being pleased with his spirit, gave him food and drink and made ready a bath for him; and when he had refreshed himself, he related to her the whole affair just as it had been. And when she learned that Wassilissa the Wise was in truth his wife, she said: "I will indeed render thee this service, not for love of thee, but because I hate her father. The fairy flies across this forest every day, bringing messages for her father, and stops in my house to rest. Remain here, and as soon as she enters, seize her by the head. When she feels herself caught, she will turn into a frog, and from a frog to a lizard, and from a lizard to a snake, and last of all she will transform herself into an arrow. Do thou take the arrow and break it into three pieces, and she will be thine