and when she had eaten them in his honour she went again to the fenced meadows of the Tsar, and began rolling about in the grass. A sable and a marten came running by. "Where have you been feeding so fatly, sly Mrs. Foxy?" they asked. "What! ye live in the wood and yet don't know that I am held in great honour by the Tsar? This day I have conducted the wolves and the bears to his banquet; by this time they will be unable to tear themselves away from the Tsar's tit-bits; never have they had such a feed from the day of their birth." Then the sable and the marten also began wheedling the fox. "Dear little dovey gossip! wilt not thou lead us to the Tsar? We will only look on afar off while the others eat."--"If ye will bring together forty forties of your sables and martens a dinner shall be got ready for the whole lot of you. But a couple of you all alone would not even be admitted into the courtyard." The next day the sables and the martens came together, and the fox led them to Tsar Ogon, made obeisance to him on behalf of his future son-in-law, and presented him with the forty forties of sables and martens. The Tsar accepted the gift, and said: "Thanks! Tell my destined son-in-law to come to me himself; we want to have a look at him, and it is time he saw his bride." The next day the little fox again came running to court. The Tsar asked her: "Where, then, is our destined son-in-law?" The little fox replied: "He bade me bow low before you and say that to-day he cannot manage to come anyhow!"--"How so?" "Well, he is frightfully busy; he is getting together all his things to come to you, and just now he is counting up his treasures. So now he begs you to lend him a corn-measure, he must measure his silver money; his corn-measures are all choke-full of gold." The Tsar, without more ado, gave the fox the corn-measure, but he said to himself: "Well done, fox! This is something like a son-in-law that has fallen to our lot. He actually measures his gold and silver with corn-measures!" The next day the fox again came running to court and returned the Tsar his corn-measure (but she had stuck little silver pieces all about the corners of it), and said: "Your destined son-in-law, Kuz'ma Skorobogaty, bade me bow low to you and say that to-day he'll be with you with all his riches." The Tsar was delighted, and bade them have everything ready for the reception of the precious guest. But the little fox set off for Kuz'ma's hut, and there, for the last two days, Kuz'ma had been lying on the stove--hungry, oh! so hungry, and waiting. The fox said to him: "Why dost thou lie down like that? I have got thee a bride from Tsar Ogon and the Tsaritsa Molnya. Let us come to them as guests and celebrate the wedding!"--"Why, fox! art thou out of thy wits? How can I go when I haven't even clothes to cover me?"--"Go! saddle thy nag, I say! and don't bother thy head about that!" Kuz'ma brought out his sorry jade from beneath the shed,