"I didn't dare," answered Vasilissa; "but if you give me leave, I should like to ask you about something." "Ask away; only it isn't every question that brings good. 'Get much to know, and old soon you'll grow.'" "I only want to ask you, granny, about something I saw. As I was coming here, I was passed by one riding on a white horse; he was white himself, and dressed in white. Who was he?" "That was my bright Day!" answered the Baba Yaga. "Afterwards there passed me another rider, on a red horse; red himself, and all in red clothes. Who was he?" "That was my red Sun!"[191] answered the Baba Yaga. "And who may be the black rider, granny, who passed by me just at your gate?" "That was my dark Night; they are all trusty servants of mine." Vasilissa thought of the three pairs of hands, but held her peace. "Why don't you go on asking?" said the Baba Yaga. "That's enough for me, granny. You said yourself, 'Get too much to know, old you'll grow!'" "It's just as well," said the Baba Yaga, "that you've only asked about what you saw out of doors, not indoors! In my house I hate having dirt carried out of doors;[192] and as to over-inquisitive people--well, I eat them. Now I'll ask you something. How is it you manage to do the work I set you to do?" "My mother's blessing assists me," replied Vasilissa. "Eh! eh! what's that? Get along out of my house, you bless'd daughter. I don't want bless'd people." She dragged Vasilissa out of the room, pushed her outside the gates, took one of the skulls with blazing eyes from the fence, stuck it on a stick, gave it to her and said: "Lay hold of that. It's a light you can take to your stepsisters. That's what they sent you here for, I believe." Home went Vasilissa at a run, lit by the skull, which went out only at the approach of the dawn; and at last, on the evening of the second day, she reached home. When she came to the gate, she was going to throw away the skull. "Surely," thinks she, "they can't be still in want of a light at home." But suddenly a hollow voice issued from the skull, saying: "Throw me not away. Carry me to your stepmother!" She looked at her stepmother's house, and not seeing a light in a single window, she determined to take the skull in there with her. For the first time in her life she was cordially received by her stepmother and stepsisters, who told her that from the moment she went away they hadn't had a spark of fire in the house. They couldn't strike a light themselves anyhow, and whenever they brought one in from a neighbor's, it went out as soon as it came into the room.