In the commotion, Prince Ivan stole away, ran home, found the frog skin, and threw it into the stove, where it burned.

When Vasilisa the Wise returned, she noticed her frog skin was gone.  Gloomy, she sat on the bench and said, “Look what you have done!  If you had only waited three more days, I would have been yours forever.  But now we must part.  Search for me beyond thirty-nine lands, in the fortieth kingdom with Koshchei the Deathless.”  Vasilisa the Wise turned into a gray cuckoo bird and flew out the window.

Prince Ivan cried and cried, bowed in all four directions, and went to look for his wife.

The tip of a needle.  Along the way he met a little old man who said, “Hello!  What are you looking for?”

Prince Ivan told of his misfortune.  The little old man said, “Vasilisa the Wise is clever; she was born wiser than her father.  That is why he became angry and ordered her to be a frog for three years.  Take this ball of twine.  Wherever it rolls, follow it bravely.”

Prince Ivan thanked him and followed the rolling ball.  In a field he saw a bear.  Prince Ivan took aim, wanting to kill it.  But the bear said to him with a human voice, “Don’t kill me, Prince Ivan, some time I will be of use.”

Prince Ivan took pity on the bear, put his bow away, and walked farther.  He saw a drake fly over him and took aim, but it pleaded just as the bear had.  He walked on.

Soon a hare ran by, but it too pledged its usefulness, so Prince Ivan relented.  Then he arrived at the sea and saw a pike lying on the shore, barely breathing.  It said, “Have pity on me, throw me into the blue sea!” This he did and then followed the ball to a forest.  There stood a little hut spinning around on chicken feet.  Prince Ivan said, “Little hut, stand as your mother put you, with your back to the forest and your front toward me.”

The little hut obeyed, so Prince Ivan entered and saw the bony legs, buckteeth, and long nose of Baba-Yaga.