III
THE MOTHER“Once upon a time in a certain kingdom, not in our country, there lived a Tsar, Ivan Vasilievich, and he had an elder son Vasily-Tsarevich19, and the second son was Dimitry-Tsarevich. Once the elder was of age, he had to marry. So they finally found a good, hardworking bride, but the next morning after they were married he disappeared. Dimitry-Tsarevich came to his father and says: ‘Bless me, Father. I’m going to look for my brother’. There was nothing to do — the father blessed him.
“Dimitry-Tsarevich saddled his horse and set off. He rode for a day, then for another and sees only the steppe around him. All covered with a sheet of bare snow. He rode on and in a little while he saw a tent: a white tent set up in the white snow. And in the tent, Vasily-Tsarevich, his own bro
