"What have you decided to do?"
"Nothing. Let him do it. Go where you can and die where you must."
"No, my dear Prince Ivan. We must not lose our courage. There are still greater calamities in the world than yours. Go to sleep, and get up very early. The palace will be built for you. You will only have to go around it, and knock with your hammer at the walls as if finishing your work."
And so it was. Very early in the morning Ivan came out of his chamber, and behold! The palace was all built for him.
King Koshchey was surprised. He did not believe his own eyes. "O, you are a very skillful fellow indeed. Now let us see whether you are just as clever. I have thirty daughters, beautiful princesses. To-morrow I will place all of them in a row; you will pass three times before them and tell me which is the youngest of them. If you don't guess, you shall die. Now go."
All the Princesses were there.
"Is that hard to guess?" thought the prince, "I certainly will recognize Princess Mary."
"It is very hard," said the princess, who flew as a bee into his room, "and if I do not help you, you will get into trouble. We thirty sisters look all alike. So great is the resemblance between us, that our father can recognize us only by our dress."