Soon they flew into the Tsar's courtyard. The Tsar was sitting at table just then; he saw the flying ship, was much surprised, and sent out his servant to ask who was flying on that ship. The servant went to the ship and looked, and brought back word to the Tsar that 'twas but a single, miserable little muzhik [5] who was flying the ship. The Tsar fell a-thinking. He did not relish the idea of giving his daughter to a simple muzhik, and began to consider how he could rid him of this wretched son-in-law for a whole year. And so he thought, "I'll give him many grievous tasks to do." So he immediately sent out to the fool with the command to get him, by the time the imperial meal was over, living and singing water. Now, at the very time when the Tsar was giving this command to his servant, the first comrade whom the fool had met (that is to say, the one who was listening to what was going on in the world) heard what the Tsar said, and told it to the fool. "What shall I do now?" said the fool. "Why, if I search for a year, and for my whole life too, I shall never find such water."--"Don't be afraid," said Swift-of-foot to him, "I'll manage it for you." The servant came and made known the Tsar's command. "Say I'll fetch it," replied the fool, and his comrade untied his other leg from his ear, ran off, and in a twinkling he drew from the end of the world some of the living and singing water. "I must make haste and return presently," said he, and he sat down under a water-mill and went to sleep. The Tsar's dinner was drawing to a close, and still he did not turn up though they were all waiting, so that those on board the ship grew uneasy. The first comrade bent down to the earth and listened. "Oh ho! so you are asleep beneath the mill, are you?" Then the marksman seized his gun, shot into the mill, and awoke Swift-of-foot with his shooting. Swift-of-foot set off running, and in a moment he had brought the water. The Tsar had not yet risen from the table, and his command could not therefore have been more exactly fulfilled. But it was all to no purpose, another task had to be imposed. The Tsar bade them say to the fool, "Come now, as you are so smart, show what you're made of! You and your comrades must eat at one meal twenty roast oxen and twenty large measures of baked bread." The first comrade heard and told this to the fool. The fool was terrified, and said, "Why, I can't eat even one whole loaf at one meal!"--"Don't be afraid," said Gobbler, "that will be very little for me." The servant came and delivered the Tsar's command. "Good!" said the fool, "let us have it and we'll eat it." And they brought twenty roasted bullocks, and twenty measures of baked bread. Gobbler alone ate it all up. "Ugh!" he said, "precious little! they might have given us a little more." The Tsar bade them say to the fool that he must now drink forty barrels of wine, each barrel holding forty buckets. The first comrade of the fool heard these words, and told them to him