IVAN GOLIK AND THE SERPENTS. 287

ing into each other’s eyes, but neither of them
spoke a word. At last Ivan Golik found his voice:
“What!” cried he. “Is it thou, O prince, who
art feeding swine? Thou art rightly served! Did
I not bid thee, ‘Tell not thy wife the truth for
seven years’ ?”

At this the prince flung himself down at the
other’s feet, and cried: “Oh, Ivan Golik! forgive
me, and have mercy !”

Then Ivan Golik raised him up by the shoulders
and said: “’Tis well for thee that thou art still
in God’s fair world! Yet wait a little while, and
thou shalt be Tsar again !”

The prince thereupon asked Ivan Golik how he
had got his legs back again, for the princess had
told him how she had cut Ivan Golik in two. Then
Ivan Golik confessed to him that he was his younger
brother, and told him the whole story of his life.
So they embraced and kissed each other, and then
the prince said: “’Tis high time I drove these
swine home, for the princess doesn’t like being
kept waiting for her tea.”

“Well,” said Ivan Golik, “we'll drive them back
together.”

“The worst of it, brother, is this,” said the prince,
“Dost thou see that accursed pig that leads the
others? Well, he will go only up to the gate of