Page:The Russian story book, containing tales from the song-cycles of Kiev and Novgorod and other early sources.djvu/241

 Before he could say Elena, Lame and Crooked stood before him.

"What is your pleasure?" he asked.

"Can everything be done, then?" asked Ivan.

"Everything is possible," was the reply. "Whoever blows that whistle has everything done for him. As we served Whirlwind the Whistler before, so now we are glad to serve the man who conquered him by bracing himself with draughts of the water which comes from the stinging East. It is only necessary to keep the whistle by you at all times."

"Well, then," said Ivan, "let me be in my own city this very moment."

He had no sooner spoken than he found himself in his own city, and standing in the middle of the market square. As he stood looking around him a jolly old shoemaker came up and Ivan said to him, "Where are you going, my good man?"

"I am going to sell my shoes," was the reply, "for I am a shoemaker."

"Take me into your employment," said the son of the Great White Tsar.

"But do you know how to make shoes?" was the cautious enquiry.

"Oh yes," said Ivan, with such confidence that the man could do nothing but believe him.

"I have the means of doing everything—not only making shoes but clothes as well."

"Come along, then," said the jolly shoemaker, and they went to his house. As soon as they had entered, the man took Ivan to the workshop and