270 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

scampering all about the barn! There were so many
of them that there was not room to move. They set
to work with a will, and long before dawn it was quite
finished. Then they went and awoke Ivan Golik. He
went and looked, and lo ! all the chaff was by itself, and
all the grain was by itself, and all the straw by itself!
Then Ivan bade them be quite sure that there was
not a single grain remaining in a single ear of corn.
So they scampered all about, and there was not a
mouse which did not look under every stalk of straw.
Then they ran up to him, and said: “Fear not!
there is not a single loose grain anywhere. And
now we have requited thee thy service, Ivan Golik,
farewell !”

Next morning the prince came to seek Ivan, and
marvelled to find that everything had been done as
the serpent had commanded. So he thanked Ivan
Golik, and went off to the serpent. Then they both
went together, and the serpent himself was amazed.
He called to his twenty-one daughters to search the
ears of corn well to see whether one single grain
might not be found therein, and his daughters
searched and searched, but there was not a single
loose grain to be found. Then said the serpent:
«'Tig well, let us go! We will eat and drink and
make merry till evening, and in the evening I will
give thee thy to-morrow’s task.” So they made merry