"What promise?"
"A malicious man took my horse, and good people told me to take the
ferry for three years, and receive money from no man."
The old men said: "If thou choosest, Ivan, we are ready to help thee
to get back thy horse."
"Help me, my friends."
The old men were not common people; they were the Freezer, the
Devourer, and the Wizard. The Wizard went out on the shore, made the
picture of a boat in the sand and said: "Well, brothers, you see this
boat?"
"We see it."
"Sit in it."
All four sat in the boat.
The Wizard said: "Now, light little boat, do me a service as thou
didst do before."
Straightway the boat rose in the air, and in a flash, just like an
arrow sent from a bow, it brought them to a great stony mountain. At
that mountain stood a house, and in the house lived the little
man,--himself one finger tall, his mustache seven versts in length.
The old men sent Ivan to ask for the horse. Ivan began to ask.
The little man said: "Steal the Tsar's daughter and bring her to me;
then I'll give thee the horse."
Ivan told this to his comrades. They left him at once and went to the
Tsar. The Tsar knew what they had come for, and commanded his servants
to heat the bath red hot. "Let them suffocate there," said he. Then he
asked his guests to the bath. They thanked him and went. The Wizard
commanded the Freezer to go first. The Freezer went into the bath and
made it cool. Then they washed and steamed themselves, and came to the
Tsar. He ordered a great dinner to be given, and a multitude of all
kinds of food was on the table. The Devourer began and ate everything.
In the night they came together, stole the Tsar's daughter, and
brought her to the little man himself, one finger tall, his mustache
seven versts in length. They gave him the Tsar's daughter and got the
horse.
Ivan bowed down to the old men, sat on the horse, and went to the
Tsar. He travelled and travelled, stopped in an open field to rest,
put up his tent, and lay down. He woke up, threw out his hand, the
Tsar's daughter was by him; he was delighted, and asked, "How didst
thou come here?"
"I turned into a pin, and stuck myself into thy collar."
That moment she turned into a pin again. Ivan stuck her into his
collar and travelled on; came to the Tsar. The Tsar saw the wondrous
horse, received the good hero with honor, and told how his daughter
had been stolen.