So now the old woman had the dragon's secret and the next day she told it to the Youngest Prince. He at once devised a plan whereby he hoped to overcome the dragon. He dressed himself as a shepherd and with crook in hand started off on foot for the third kingdom. He traveled through villages and towns, across rivers and over mountains, and reached at last the third kingdom and the Tsar's own city. He presented himself at the palace and asked employment as a shepherd.
The guards looked at him in surprise and said:
"A shepherd! Are you sure you want to be a shepherd?"
Then they called to their companions: "Here's a youth who wants to be a shepherd!" And the word went through the palace and even the Tsar heard it.
"Send the youth to me," he ordered.
"Do you really want to be my shepherd?" he asked the Youngest Prince.
The Youngest Prince said yes, he did.
"If I put you in charge of the sheep, where would you pasture them?"
"Isn't there a lake beyond the city," the Prince asked, "where the grazing is good?"
"H'm!" said the Tsar. "So you know about that lake, too! What else do you know?"