The little she-fox scented out the fowls that were right under her very nose in the wood, and determined to pay a visit to Kuz'ma's hut. One day little Kuz'ma went out to hunt, and no sooner had he left the hut than the little fox, who was on the watch all the time, ran up, killed one of the hens, roasted it, and ate it up. Little Kuz'ma returned, and behold! one of the hens was gone. And he thought: "I suppose the vulture must have pounced down on it!" The next day he again went out hunting. He happened to fall in with the fox, and she asked him: "Whither away, little Kuz'ma?"--"I am going a-hunting, little fox!"--"Well, good-bye!" And immediately she scampered off to his hut, killed another hen, cooked it, and ate it. Little Kuz'ma came home and counted his hens, and another was missing. And it occurred to him: "What if the little fox has tasted of my hens!" On the third day he nailed up the door and window of his hut strongly, so strongly, and went about his business as usual. And the fox turned up from somewhither and said to him: "Whither away, little Kuz'ma?"--"I go a-hunting, little fox!"--"Well, good-bye!" Off she ran to Kuz'ma's hut, and he followed her track back too. The fox ran all round the hut, and saw that the door and window were nailed up strongly, oh so strongly; how was she to get into the hut? So up she climbed and disappeared down the chimney; then up came Kuz'ma and caught the fox. "Ah-ha!" cried he; "look what a thief pays me visits! Wait a bit, my little lady; you shall not get out of my hands alive." Then the little fox began to implore Kuz'ma: "Don't kill me! I'll get thee betrothed to a rich bride. Only please roast me one more fowl, the fattest, with lots of nice oil!" Little Kuz'ma fell a-thinking, and then he killed one more fowl for the little fox: "There, eat, little fox, and much good may it do thee!" The fox ate it up, licked her chaps, and said: "Behind this wood is the tsardom of the great and terrible Tsar Ogon, [32] his wife is the Tsaritsa Molnya, [33] and they have a daughter, a most beauteous Tsarevna; I'll marry thee to her."--"Who would take a poor fellow like me?"--"Silence! that's not thy business." And the little fox set off to Tsar Ogon and the Tsaritsa Molnya. She ran all the way to them, entered their palace, made a low obeisance, and said: "Hail, mighty, potent Tsar Ogon, and terrible Tsaritsa Molnya!"--"Hail to thee, fox! What nice little piece of good news hast thou brought us?"--"Well, I have come to you as a match-maker. You have the bride and I have the young bridegroom, Kuz'ma Skorobogaty."--"Where is he buried that he does not come himself?"--"He cannot quit his principality. He rules over the wild beasts, and takes his pleasure with them."--"So that's the sort of bridegroom you present us with! Well, go back to him and say that he must send us forty forties of gray wolves, and then we'll accept him as the bridegroom." Then