Then Tarás the Stout said, “Iván, you smell too strong. Go and eat outside.”

“All right,” said Iván, taking some bread and going into the yard. “It is time, anyhow, for me to go and pasture the mare.”

Tarás’s imp, being also free that night, came, as agreed, to help his comrades subdue Iván the Fool. He came to the cornfield, looked and looked for his comrades⁠—no one was there. He only found a hole. He went to the meadow, and there he found an imp’s tail in the swamp, and another hole in the rye stubble.

“Evidently, some ill-luck has befallen my comrades,” thought he. “I must take their place and tackle the fool.”

So the imp went to look for Iván, who had already stacked the corn and was cutting trees in the wood. The two brothers had begun to feel crowded, living together, and had told Iván to cut down trees to build new houses for them.