Muzhichek-no-bigger-than-your-thumb-but-with-moustaches-seven-versts-long replied, "I see that you don't know that, though small, I am brave withal;" then, tearing the hero from the bench, he dragged him from corner to corner, bumped his head well against the walls, and then threw him, more dead than alive, beneath the bench. He himself took the roast ram from the table, ate it, bones and all, and vanished. The brothers returned and asked, "What's the matter? Why have you bandaged your head?" But Vechorka was ashamed to say that such a miserable little wretch had trounced him so soundly, and he said to his brothers, "I got a headache from looking to the fire without you, so that I could neither roast nor boil." The next day Zor'ka and Vechorka went out to hunt, and Polunochka stayed behind to get the dinner ready. No sooner had he finished cooking the dinner, than there was again a rushing sound in the wood, and into the hut came the Muzhichek-no-bigger-than-your-thumb-but-with-moustaches-seven-versts-long, knocked Polunochka about, maimed him, pitched him under the bench, ate up the whole dinner, and vanished. Again the brothers returned and asked, "What's the matter, brotherkin? Why do you tie up your head with rags?"--"I have got a headache from looking to the fire, my brothers," replied Polunochka, "so that my poor little head was quite splitting, and therefore I could not get ready your dinner for you." On the third day the elder brothers went to hunt, and Zor'ka remained in the hut alone, and thought to himself, "There's something not quite right here. It is not for nothing that my brothers have complained of the heat of the fire two days running." So he began to look all about, and to listen, in case any one should be coming to fall upon him unawares. He chose a ram, killed and cut it up, cleansed it, roasted it, and placed it on the table, and immediately there was a racket and a thundering in the wood, and in at the door rushed the Muzhichek-no-bigger-than-your-thumb-but-with-moustaches-seven-versts-long, with a rick of hay on his head, and in his hand a bucket of water. He put the bucket of water in the midst of the courtyard, strewed the straw all over the courtyard, and set about counting his sheep. He saw that there was yet another ram missing, flew into a violent rage, stamped on the ground with his little feet, dashed into the hut, and flung himself violently upon Zor'ka. But this Zor'ka was not like his brothers. He seized the Muzhichek by his moustaches, and began to drag him about the hut and well towzle him, and cried at the same time-- "If you don't know the ford Don't step overboard." [15]