Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/302

258 "Dost thou not see that I am hungry and thirsty?" she snapped. "Fetch me food!"

He set a piece of venison and a cup of kwas before her.

She ate and drank and asked for more, and he brought her another piece of meat. This, however, being smaller than the first, did not please her fancy. "Is it thus thou servest me?" she shrieked, and gripping him by the hair with her skinny hands, she dragged him from corner to corner, beat his head against the walls and belabored him with her iron pestle till his senses left him. Then she cut a strip of flesh from his back, threw him under the bench, ate all that he had cooked and drove away.

When the others returned from their hunting, they found Gorynia sitting with his head bandaged and groaning louder than had Usynia the day before. "Alas, little brothers!" he said, when they questioned him, "the wood was damp and would not burn, and from trying to bake and roast for you, my head aches as if it would burst!" So the three cooked their own supper and went to bed.

The next day Dubynia was left at home, while the others hunted, and to him the same thing happened also. The Baba-Yaga appeared, beat him black and blue with her pestle, cut a strip of flesh