The two elder brothers went home and said to each other, "It looks as though we had laughed at Prince Ivan's wife for nothing -- it seems she is not a frog, but a sorceress."
Again the King called his sons. "Let your wives bake me bread by tomorrow morning," he said. I want to know which one cooks the best."
Prince Ivan came home looking very sad again. The frog said to him, "Why are you so sad, Prince?"
"The King wants you to bake bread for him by tomorrow morning," replied her husband.
"Don't be downhearted, Prince Ivan. Go to bed; night is the mother of counsel."
Now those other daughters-in-law had made fun of the frog at first, but this time they sent an old henwife to see how the frog baked her bread. But the frog was cunning and guessed what they were about. She kneaded the dough, broke the top of the stove and emptied the dough-trough straight down the hole. The old henwife ran back to the other wives and told them what she had seen, and they did as the frog had done.
Then the frog hopped out onto the doorstep, turned into Vasilisa the Wise, and clapped her hands and cried, "Maids and nurses, get ready, work steady! By tomorrow morning bake me a soft white loaf like the ones I ate when I lived at home." |
