One evening the Tsar ordered his three sons to have their wives make him clothes. The Tsar would judge who was the best seamstress by the quality of the garments offered to him the next day. There was only one problem – Tsarevich Ivan, by a series of strange circumstances – had married a frog. And upon returning to his house, was altogether sad. But his wife, bid him to rest and to see what the
morning brought.

Tsarevich Ivan went to bed, and the frog hopped out onto the porch, cast off its frog skin and turned into Vasilisa the Wise and Clever, a maiden fair beyond compare.
She clapped her hands and cried:

"Come, my women and maids, make haste and set to work! Make me a shirt by tomorrow morning, like those my father used to wear." The night passed and morning dawned.

Tsarevich Ivan woke, and there on the floor was the frog hopping along. But on the table was a shirt all ready, lying on the table wrapped in a handsome cloth. Tsarevich Ivan was overjoyed. Taking the shirt, he made his way to the throne room, where his father was busy receiving his two elder son's gifts.
The eldest son laid out his shirt, and the tsar took it and said:

"This shirt will only do for a poor farmer to wear."
The middle son laid out his shirt, and the Tsar said:
"This shirt will only do to go to the baths in."
Then Tsarevich Ivan laid out his shirt, all beautifully embroidered in gold and silver and the Tsar took one look at it and said:
"Now this is the shirt to wear on holidays!"

The two elder brothers were furious, to have been so upstaged by their younger brother. The Tsar was still inspecting the embroidery on the shirt, when the three princes left his presence. Tsarevich Ivan went straight home to share the good news with his frog.

The two elder brothers went home and they spoke among themselves and said:
"It seems we were wrong to laugh at Tsarevich Ivan's wife. She is no frog, but a witch."

Now the Tsar again called his sons to him. "Let your wives bake me some bread by tomorrow morning," said he. "I want to know which one of them is the best cook."

Tsarevich Ivan hung his head and went home. And the Frog asked him: "Why are you so sad, Tsarevich Ivan?" Said Tsarevich Ivan: "You are to bake some bread for my father by tomorrow morning."

"Do not grieve, Tsarevich Ivan, but go to bed. Morning is wiser than evening."
But the two sisters-in-law, who had laughed at the Frog at first, now sent an old woman who worked in the kitchen to see how she baked her bread!

But the Frog was clever and guessed what they were up to. She kneaded some dough, broke off the top of the stove and threw the dough down the hole. The old woman ran to the two sisters-in-law and told them all about it, and they did as the Frog had done.

Then the Frog hopped out onto the porch, turned into Vasilisa the Wise and Clever and clapped her hands. "Come, my women and maids, make haste and set to work!" cried she. “By tomorrow morning bake me some soft white bread, the kind I used to eat at my own father's house."

In the morning, Tsarevich Ivan woke up, and there was the bread all ready, lying on the table and prettily decorated with all manner of things: stamped figures on the sides, and towns with walls and gates on the top.

Tsarevich Ivan was overjoyed. He wrapped the bread up in a towel and took it to his father who was just receiving the loaves his elder brothers had brought. Their wives had just dropped the dough into the stove as the old woman had told them to do, and the loaves came out charred and lumpy.

The Tsar took the bread from his eldest son, he looked it at it and sent it to the servants hall. He took the bread from the middle son and did the same with it. But when Tsarevich Ivan handed him his bread, he said: "Now this is the bread to be eaten on holidays!"

And the Tsar bade his three sons come and feast with him on the morrow together with their wives.

Continued next week...