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.
All were astonished, and cried: “Stop him, hold him! Who is he?”
But his trace was cold. He rode out to the field, crept into one ear and out of the other, became just such a simpleton as before, came home, tied a rag around his forehead, pretended that his head was aching, and lay down on the stove.
His brothers returned and said: “Oh, father, there was a hero, such a hero! At once he broke all twelve windows and kissed the Tsarevna.”
The simpleton cried out from the stove: “Ah, brothers, was it not I?”