“I am only a poor shoemaker, how can I do such a thing?”
“If you do not do what we tell you,” said the princesses, “your head
shall be cut off.”
The shoemaker went at once from the castle, weeping bitterly. He turned
in at an alehouse to drown his care, got drunk, and when he reached home
told Ivan what he had been commanded.
“Go to sleep,” said Ivan; “to-morrow will bring us good luck.”
The shoemaker laid himself down on a bench and went to sleep, and Ivan,
calling the spirit to him, told him to get everything ready as the
shoemaker had been commanded. After that he lay down, and went to sleep
also.
Early the next morning Ivan woke his master, and putting the wing of a
goose in his hand, said—
“Go at once to the bridge and dust it.”
Ivan himself went into the golden palace. The Czar and his daughters
woke very early, and came out on the balcony, and from there they saw
everything. The princesses were beside themselves with joy, for they
were now sure that Ivan was in the town, and soon after they saw him
standing at a window in the golden castle. Then they begged the Czar and
his wife to go with them into the castle, and as they were about to go
up the steps of the palace, Ivan came out to meet them. His mother and
the princesses ran forward to embrace him, and said—
“This is he who rescued us.”
His brothers were ashamed, and looked down on the ground, and the Czar
was thunderstruck, so astonished was he. His wife, however, soon
explained everything to him, and then the Czar was so angry with his
eldest sons that he would have put them to death. Ivan threw himself at
his feet, and said—
“My dear father, if you wish to reward me for my labour, grant me the
lives of my brothers, and I shall be satisfied.”