He looked once more in the glass, and saw that the little old woman Death had shifted from the Tzar's head and was now standing at his feet. He picked up the glass and splashed the water over the Tzar, and there was the Tzar as well and healthy as ever he had been.
"You are my own true brother after all," says the Tzar. "Let us go and feast together."
But the soldier shook in all his limbs and could hardly stand, and he knew that his time was come. He prayed Death: "O Death, give me just one hour to say good-bye to my wife and my little son."
"Hurry up!" says Death.
And the soldier hurried to his room in the palace, said good-bye to his wife, told his son to grow up and be a general, lay down on his bed and grew iller every minute.
He looked, and there was Death, a little old woman, standing by his bedside.
"Well, soldier," says Death, "you have only two minutes left to live!"
The soldier groaned, and, turning in bed, pulled the flour sack from under his pillow and opened it.
"Do you know what this is?" says he to Death.
"A sack," says Death.