Page:Slavonic Fairy Tales.djvu/69

54 "Hut, hut, turn about, with your back to the forest and your front to me."

The hut immediately turned itself round with its front towards him. An old woman was looking out of the window, and she asked, "Whom have we here?"

Ivan bowed to her, and enquired whether she had observed which way the wind was in the habit of carrying beautiful girls.

"Ah, my son," said the old woman, coughing and looking hard at Ivan, "the wind has troubled me dreadfully. It is now a hundred and twenty years that I have lived in this hut, without ever once leaving it; it will kill me some day. You must know though that it is not the wind that is in fault, but the Dragon."

"Which is the way to him?"

"Take care; the Dragon will swallow you up."

"We shall see."

"Be mindful of your head, good knight," continued the old woman, shaking her toothless gums, "and promise me that, if you return safely, you will bring me some of the water from the Dragon's palace, in which, if I wash myself I shall be made young again."

"I promise; I will bring you some of the water, grandmother."

"I take your word for it. And now, my dear son, go towards the sunset; after a year's journeying you