ho may be the black rider, granny, who passed by
me just at your gate?"

"That was my dark Night; they are all trusty servants of
mine."

Vasilissa thought of the three pairs of hands, but held her
peace.

"Why don't you go on asking?" said the Baba Yaga.

"That's enough for me, granny. You said yourself, 'Get
too much to know, old you'll grow!'"

"It's just as well," said the Baba Yaga, "that you've only
asked about what you saw out of doors, not indoors! In my house
I hate having dirt carried out of doors;[192] and as to over-inquisitive
people--well, I eat them. Now I'll ask you something.
How is it you manage to do the work I set you to do?"

"My mother's blessing assists me," replied Vasilissa.

"Eh! eh! what's that? Get along out of my house, you
bless'd daughter. I don't want bless'd people."

She dragged Vasilissa out of the room, pushed her outside
the gates, took one of the skulls with blazing eyes from the
fence, stuck it on a stick, gave it to her and said:

"Lay hold of that. It's a light you can take to your stepsisters.
That's what they sent you here for, I believe."

Home went Vasilissa at a run, lit by the skull, which went out
only at the approach of the dawn; and at last, on the evening
of the second day, she reached home. When she came to the
gate, she was going to throw away the skull.

"Surely," thinks she, "they can't be still in want of a light
at home." But suddenly a hollow voice issued from the skull,
saying:

"Throw me not away. Carry me to your stepmother!"

She looked at her stepmother's house, and not seeing a light
in a single window, she determined to take the skull in there
with her. For the first time in her life she was cordially received
by her stepmother and stepsisters, who told her that from the
moment she went away they hadn't had a spark of fire in the
house. They couldn't strike a light themselves anyhow, and
whenever they brought one in from a neighbor's, it went out as
soon as it came into the room.

"Perhaps your light will keep in!" said the stepmother. So
they carried the skull into the sitting-room. But the eyes of the
skull so glared at the stepmother and her daughters--shot forth
such flames! They would fain have hidden themselves, but run
where they would, everywhere did the eyes follow after them.
By the morning they were utterly burnt to cinders. Only Vasilissa