alloped and galloped. But she would have caught him if the giant
Mountain-tosser had not seen the little Prince on the big black horse,
and the great witch baby running after him. The giant tore up the
biggest mountain in the world and flung it down in front of her, and
another on the top of that. She had to bite her way through them,
while the little Prince galloped and galloped.

At last little Prince Ivan saw the cloud castle of the little sister
of the Sun, hanging over the end of the world and gleaming in the sky
as if it were made of roses. He shouted with hope, and the black horse
shook his head proudly and galloped on. The witch baby thundered after
him. Nearer she came and nearer.

"Ah, little one," screams the witch baby, "you shan't get away this
time!"

The Sun's little sister was looking from a window of the castle in the
sky, and she saw the witch baby stretching out to grab little Prince
Ivan. She flung the window open, and just in time the big black horse
leapt up, and through the window and into the courtyard, with little
Prince Ivan safe on its back.

How the witch baby gnashed her iron teeth!

"Give him up!" she screams.

"I will not," says the Sun's little sister.

"See you here," says the witch baby, and she makes herself smaller and
smaller and smaller, till she was just like a real little girl. "Let
us be weighed in the great scales, and if I am heavier than Prince
Ivan, I can take him; and if he is heavier than I am, I'll say no more
about it."

The Sun's little sister laughed at the witch baby and teased her, and
she hung the great scales out of the cloud castle so that they swung
above the end of the world.

Little Prince Ivan got into one scale, and down it went.

"Now," says the witch baby, "we shall see."

And she made herself bigger and bigger and bigger, till she was as big
as she had been when she sat and sucked her thumb in the hall of the
ruined palace. "I am the heavier," she shouted, and gnashed her iron
teeth. Then she jumped into the other scale.

She was so heavy that the scale with the little Prince in it shot up
into the air. It shot up so fast that little Prince Ivan flew up into
the sky, up and up and up, and came down on the topmost turret of the
cloud castle of the little sister of the Sun.

The Sun's little sister laughed, and closed the window, and went up to
the turret to meet the little Prince. But the witch baby turned back
the way she had come, and went