matter for seven years. However caressing she
may be, thou shalt not let her ears know the truth, for if thou _dost_
tell her the truth, both thou and I shall perish!"

"Good!" said he. "I will not tell my wife the truth."

Next morning the young men arose and went to the serpent, and the
prince took leave of his father-in-law, and said he must be going
home.

"But why off so soon?" said the serpent.

"Nay, but I must go," said he.

Then the serpent gave the youth a banquet, and they sat down and ate
and made merry, and after that he departed to his own tsardom. And the
prince thanked Ivan Golik for all that he had done for him, and made
him the first of his counsellors. Whatever Ivan Golik said was
performed throughout the realm, while the Tsar had only to sit on his
throne and do nothing.

So the young prince dwelt with his wife for a year or two, and in the
third year a son was added to them, and the heart of the prince was
glad. Now one day he took his little son in his arms, and said, "Is
there anything in the wide world that I like better than this child?"
When the princess saw that the heart of her spouse was tender, she
fell a-kissing and caressing him, and began asking him all about the
time when they were first married, and how he had been able to do her
father's commands. And the prince said to her, "My head would long ago
have been mouldering on the posts of thy father's palace had it not
been for Ivan Golik. 'Twas he who did it all and not I."

Then she was very wrath. But she never changed countenance, and
shortly afterward she went out.

Ivan Golik was sitting in his own house at his ease, when the princess
came flying in to him. And immediately she drew out of the ground a
handkerchief with gold borders, and no sooner had she waved this
serpentine handkerchief, than Ivan fell asunder into two pieces. His
legs remained where they were, but his trunk with his head disappeared
through the roof, and fell seven miles away from the house. And as he
fell he cried, "Oh, accursed one! did I not charge thee not to
confess! Did I not implore thee not to tell thy wife the truth for
seven years! And now I perish and thou also!"

He raised his head and found himself sitting in a wood, and there he
saw an armless man pursuing a hare. He pursued and pursued it, but
though he caught it up, he couldn't catch it, for he had no arms. Then
Ivan Golik caught it and they fell out about it. The armless one said,
"T