Well, two thousand dollars seemed a fortune to the man. Moreover he did not see what harm it could do to sell the halter too.
So he let the gypsy have the horse and the halter as well, and the gypsy paid him two thousand dollars and led the horse away.
And now the lad could not change himself back into his human shape, because the halter held him, and this Oh knew very well.
He led the horse back to the forest and down to the world that is under this. “Now I have you again,” he said, “and this time you shall not escape me.”
Then he called to his youngest daughter and bade her take the horse down to the river to drink.
When she had brought the horse to the river bank it said to her. “Loosen, I pray of thee, the halter, that I may drink more easily.”
Then the girl, who was a stupid wench, loosened the halter. At once the lad slipped out of it and changed himself into a perch and fled away down the river.
But the Green One knew what had happened. He rushed down to the river and changed himself into a pike and pursued after the perch.
On and on they went, but the pike swam faster than the perch and was just about to catch it when the perch sprang clear out of the water.
The daughter of the Tsar was walking by the river, and she was such a beauty that it made the heart ache to look at her. On her arm she carried a basket.