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The servant came, and announced the Tzar’s command.

“Good,” says the Fool. “Send the food along, and we’ll know what to do with it.”

So they brought twelve oxen roasted whole, and as much bread as could be baked in forty ovens, and the companions had scarcely sat down to the meal before the Eater had finished the lot.

“Why,” said the Eater, “what a little! They might have given us a decent meal while they were about it.”

The Tzar told his servant to tell the Fool that he and his companions were to drink forty barrels of wine, with forty bucketfuls in every barrel.

The Listener told the Fool what message was coming.

“Why,” says the Fool, “I never in my life drank more than one bucket at a time.”

“Don’t worry,” says the Drinker. “You forget that I am thirsty. It’ll be nothing of a drink for me.”

They brought the forty barrels of wine, and tapped them, and the Drinker tossed them down one after another, one gulp for each barrel. “Little enough,” says he, “Why, I am thirsty still.”

“Very good,” says the Tzar to his servant, when he heard that they had eaten all the food and drunk all the wine. “Tell the fellow to get ready for the wedding, and let him go and bathe himself in the bath-house. But let the bath-house be made so hot that the man will stifle and frizzle as soon as he sets foot inside. It is an iron bath-house. Let it be made red hot.”

The Listener heard all this and told the Fool, who stopped short with his mouth open in the middle of a joke.

“Don’t you worry,” says the moujik with the straw.

Well, they made the bath-house red hot, and called the Fool, and the Fool went along to the bath-house to wash himself, and with him went the moujik with the straw.

They shut them both into the bath-house, and thought that that was the end of them. But the moujik scattered his straw before them as they went in, and it became so cold in there that the Fool of the World had scarcely time to wash himself before the water in the cauldrons froze to solid ice. They lay down on the very stove itself, and spent the night there, shivering.

In the morning the servants opened the bath-house, and there were the Fool of the World and the moujik, alive and well, lying on the stove and singing songs.

They told the Tzar, and the Tzar raged with anger. “There is no getting rid of this fellow,” says he. “But go and tell him that I send him this message: ‘If you are to marry my daughter, you must show that you are able to defend her. Let me see that you have at least a regiment of soldiers,'” Thinks he to himself, “How can a simple peasant raise a troop? He will find it hard enough to raise a single soldier.”

The Listener told the Fool of the World, and the Fool began to lament. “This time,” says he, “I am done indeed. You, my brothers, have saved me from misfortune more than once, but this time, alas, there is nothing to be done.”

“Oh, what a fellow you are!” says the peasant with the fagot of wood. “I suppose you’ve forgotten about me. Remember that I am the man for this little affair, and don’t you worry about it at all.”

The Tzar’s servant came along and gave his message.

“Very good,” says the Fool; “but tell the Tzar that if after this he puts me off again, I’ll make war on his country, and take the Princess by force.”

And then, as the servant went back with the message, the whole crew on the flying ship set to their singing again, and sang and laughed and made jokes as if they had not a care in the world.

During the night, while the others slept, the peasant with the fagot of wood went hither and thither, scattering his sticks. Instantly where they fell there appeared a gigantic army. Nobody could count the number of soldiers in it–cavalry, foot soldiers, yes, and guns, and all the guns new and bright, and the men in the finest uniforms that ever were seen.

In the morning, as the Tzar woke and looked from the windows of the palace, he found himself surrounded by troops upon troops of soldiers, and generals in cocked hats bowing in the courtyard and taking orders from the Fool of the World, who sat there joking with his companions in the flying ship. Now it was the Tzar’s turn to be afraid. As quickly as he could he sent his servants to the Fool with presents of rich jewels and fine clothes, invited him to come to the palace, and begged him to marry the Princess.

The Fool of the World put on the fine clothes, and stood there as handsome a young man as a princess could wish for a husband. He presented himself before the Tzar, fell in love with the Princess and she with him, married her the same day, received with her a rich dowry, and became so clever that all the court repeated everything he said. The Tzar and the Tzaritza liked him very much, and as for the Princess, she loved him to distraction.