But his trace was cold. He rode away into the field, crept into one
ear of his steed, out of the other, and became just such a simpleton
as before; he sat on his wretched horse, rode home, and lay on the
stove.
His brothers came back and said: "Well, father, there was a
hero,--such a hero! He broke through six glasses at once."
The simpleton from the stove cried out: "Ah, brothers, was not that
I?"
"Thou dunce! how couldst thou do it; how couldst thou get the
Tsarevna? Thou art not worth her finger nail."
Next day the brothers prepared again to go to the Tsar's palace; the
simpleton also prepared. "What art thou going for, thou dunce?"
laughed the brothers; "thou art needed there, I suppose!"
The simpleton went again on his mangy, wretched little horse to the
field, and cried in a shrill voice: "Oh, blue-brown, cunning bay,
stand before me as leaf before stem!"
The steed rushed, the ground trembled, the simpleton crept into one
ear of the steed and out of the other, and became such a beauty as had
never been seen or heard of before. He rushed through the Tsar's
court, broke all the twelve windows, and kissed the Tsarevna,
Priceless Beauty. She put a mark straight on his forehead.