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 122 The merchant gave his consent. Ivan saddled the horse, mounted him, rode outside the gates, and began to gallop up and down. The merchant stood at the gate looking on.

All at once Ivan whistled, stopped the horse, and said,—

"Farewell, my dear father; I cannot stop with you any longer; stepmother tried to poison me and the horse." Having said this he galloped away.

Outside the town Ivan met an old, withered, bony woman driving a cart full of hay on the road. Presently the cart turned over. Ivan laughed, and cried,—

"I say, grandmother, I could lift up your cart with one hand."

He dismounted, and began to lift up the cart.

"Have you left your home with a blessing?" asked the old woman, and taking a scythe from under the hay, she mowed him down.

"A-ha! though you have been bragging of your strength, I have got you now."

The old woman was Death.

The poor youth fell down dead; the horse, frightened, galloped away. A falcon flew by carrying two phials in its claws,—one of the water of life, the other of the water of death. He had observed carrion birds in the middle of the field feeding on white flesh; they were rapidly