The next day, early in the morning, the three brother-heroes, Zor'ka, Vechorka, and Polunochka, arrived at the Tsar's court; the first had the fairest face, the second the broadest shoulders, the third the stateliest figure. They went in to the Tsar, prayed before the sacred ikons, and bowed low on every side of them, but to the Tsar they bowed lowest of all. "May our Sovereign Lord and Tsar live long in the land! We have come to thee, not to feast with the festive, but to do a deed right hard and sore, for we have come to fetch thee this strange horse from far away--that selfsame horse that appeared to thee in thy dreams."--"Success attend you, ye good youths! What provision do ye require for your journey?"--"We want nothing, O Gosudar! [14] Only do not neglect our good father and mother. Provide for them in their old age and need."--"If that be all, depart in God's name on your journey. I will bring your old parents to my court, and they shall be my guests; I will give them to eat and drink from my own royal table, they shall be clothed and shod from my own royal wardrobe, and they shall be filled full with all good things." So the good youths departed on their long journey. They travelled that day, and the next, and the third also, with nothing but the sky above their heads, and the broad steppe on every side of them. At last they left the steppe and entered a dense forest, and rejoiced greatly. On the very skirts of the forest stood a little hut, and beside the little hut a tiny sheepfold full of sheep. "Look," said they, "there we shall find some place to lay our heads in, and rest from our journey." They knocked at the hut--there was no answer; they peeped into it--it was quite empty. The brothers entered in, made ready for the night, prayed to God, and laid them down to sleep. In the morning Zor'ka and Polunochka went into the wood to hunt, and said to Vechorka, "Stay at home and get dinner ready for us." The eldest brother agreed, put everything to rights in the hut, and then went to the sheepfold, chose the fattest ram, cut it up, cleansed it, and roasted it for dinner. He had no sooner laid the table, however, and had just sat down by the window to await his brothers, when all at once there came a rumbling and a thundering from the forest, the door was nearly torn off its hinges, and the Muzhichek-only-as-big-as-your-thumb-but-with-moustaches-seven-versts-long entered the hut, with his moustaches floating far down his back. On entering the hut he looked at Vechorka from beneath his beetling brows, and shrieked with a terrible voice, "How dare you come into my hut as if you were its lord and master? How dare you cut up my ram?" But Vechorka looked at him and smiled. "You ought to grow a little bigger before you shriek like that," said he. "Be off, and don't let me see you here again, or I'll take a spoonful of cabbage soup, and a little crumb of bread, and glue up your eyes for you." The