"Everything is possible," was the reply. "Whoever blows that whistle has everything done for him. As we served Whirlwind the Whistler before, so now we are glad to serve the man who conquered him by bracing himself with draughts of the water which comes from the stinging East. It is only necessary to keep the whistle by you at all times." "Well, then," said Ivan, "let me be in my own city this very moment." He had no sooner spoken than he found himself in his own city, and standing in the middle of the market square. As he stood looking around him a jolly old shoemaker came up and Ivan said to him, "Where are you going, my good man?" "I am going to sell my shoes," was the reply, "for I am a shoemaker." "Take me into your employment," said the son of the Great White Tsar. "But do you know how to make shoes?" was the cautious enquiry. "Oh yes," said Ivan, with such confidence that the man could do nothing but believe him. "I have the means of doing everything--not only making shoes but clothes as well." "Come along, then," said the jolly shoemaker, and they went to his house. As soon as they had entered, the man took Ivan to the workshop and pointing to a seat near a bench he said: "Sit down there and get to work. I will go out to sell my wares, and when I return to-morrow I shall be able to judge exactly of your skill." As soon as the man was gone Ivan took out his whistle and summoned Lame and Crooked. "What is your pleasure?" asked he. "To have shoes ready by to-morrow." Lame and Crooked smiled a smile which seemed to wander round the room. "That is not work," he said, "but recreation." "Here is the leather," said Ivan, and Lame and Crooked looked at it with a curving upper lip. "That is poor stuff," he said, "and the proper place for it is out of the window." Then he jumped out very nimbly after it and Ivan saw him no more; but when the young man awoke next morning he saw on the table beside his bed several pairs of shoes of the very best. He had scarcely dressed himself when the jolly old shoemaker came into his room and said, "Well, young man, are the shoes ready?" "They are ready for sale," said Ivan quietly, pointing to the shoes on the table beside his bed. The shoemaker inspected them very closely, and his eyes opened wide in wonder. "Why, young man," he said, with a jolly smile, "you are not a shoemaker but a magician. I must go at once to the market and turn these fine shoes into good red gold."