When Tsarevich Ivan married a Frog, little did he realise his bride was actually Vasilisa the Wise and Clever. Yet, even under an enchantment, she made him an excellent wife. For his father, she baked bread, and sewed shirts, finer than those of either of the other two daughters-in-law. But her identity remained a secret, up until the Tsar's Grand Ball. It was there that Tsarevich Ivan discovered who his Frog really was. Rushing home, the prince burnt his beautiful wife's discarded frog skin. When she returned home, Vasilisa the Wise and Clever despaired over her husband's actions. Vasilisa was under an enchantment and had Tsarevich Ivan waited but three more days, she would have been free. After telling her husband where he could find her, Vasilisa turns into a cuckoo and flies away. Determined to find her Tsarevich Ivan also leaves his father's house. Having walked for many, many days, Tsarevich Ivan meets an old man who gives him a ball of twine that will lead him to his love. He also meets a bear, a drake, a hare and a pike – all of whom he refrains from killing and allows to go free. And now, finally, near the end of his journey, Tsarevich Ivan stands before Baba Yaga's hut.

The hut danced on its chicken feet and ignored Tsarevich Ivan. Round and round it spun, until it made Tsarevich Ivan dizzy. Finally he called out, "Little hut, little hut, stand as you once stood, with your face to me and your back to the wood."

The hut turned its face to him and its back to the forest, and Tsarevich Ivan entered. There on the edge of the stove ledge, lay Baba Yaga the Witch with a Switch, in a pose she liked best, her crooked noise to the ceiling pressed. But Baba Yaga was in a very good mood, for she had just eaten till her belly was big and full. Baba Yaga smiled down at Tsarevich Ivan and said:

"What brings you here, good youth? Is there
something you have come to seek? Come, good youth, I pray you, speak!"

Said Tsarevich Ivan:

"First give me food and drink, please, and steam me in the bath, and then ask your questions."
So Baba Yaga, who was still in a good mood, steamed him in the bath, gave him food and drink and put him to bed, and then Tsarevich Ivan told her he was seeking his wife, Vasilisa the Wise and Clever.
"I know where she is," said Baba Yaga. Koschei the Deathless has her in his power. It will be hard getting her back, for it is not easy to get the better of Koschei. His death is at the point of a needle, and the needle is in an egg, the egg in a duck, the duck in a hare, the hare in a stone chest and the chest at a the top of a tall oak tree, which Koschei the Deathless guards as the apple of his own eye."

Tsarevich Ivan spent the night in Baba Yaga's hut and in the morning she told him where the tall oak-tree was to be found. He set out, and luckily for him, it was only a day after he left, that Baba Yaga began to feel hungry again.

Whether he was long on the way or not, no one knows, but by and by he came to the tall oak tree. It stood there and it rustled and it swayed, and the stone chest was at the top of it and very hard to reach.

All of a sudden, lo and behold! – the bear came running and it pulled out the oak-tree, roots and all. Down fell the chest and it broke open. Out of the chest bounded a hare, and away it tore as fast as it could. But another hare appeared and gave it chase. It caught up the first hare and tore it to bits. Out of the hare flew a duck, and it soared up to the very sky. But in a trice, the drake was upon it and it struck the duck so hard that it dropped the egg, and down the egg fell and into the blue sea.

At this Tsarevich Ivan began weeping bitter tears, for how could he find the egg in the sea! But all at once, the pike came swimming to the shore with the egg in its mouth. Tsarevich Ivan cracked the egg, took out the needle and began trying to break off the point. The more he bent it, the more Koshchei the Deathless writhed and twisted. But all in vain. For Tsarevich Ivan broke off the point of the needle, and Koschei fell down dead.

Tsarevich Ivan then went to the Koschei's palace of white stone. And Vasilisa the Wise and Clever ran out and kissed him. Then Tsarevich Ivan and Vasilisa the Wise and Clever went back to their own home and lived together long and happily until they were quite, quite old.

To be continued next week...