were no houses anywhere to be seen. It was a long time since they had
passed any people, and little Prince Ivan began to feel very lonely,
and to wonder if indeed he had come to the end of the world, and could
bring his journey to an end.

Suddenly, on a wide, sandy plain, he saw two old, old women sitting in
the road.

They were bent double over their work, sewing and sewing, and now one
and now the other broke a needle, and took a new one out of a box
between them, and threaded the needle with thread from another box,
and went on sewing and sewing. Their old noses nearly touched their
knees as they bent over their work.

Little Prince Ivan pulled up the great black horse in a cloud of dust,
and spoke to the old women.

"Grandmothers," said he, "is this the end of the world? Let me stay
here and live with you, and be safe from my baby sister, who is a
witch and has iron teeth. Please let me stay with you, and I'll be
very little trouble, and thread your needles for you when you break
them."

"Prince Ivan, my dear," said one of the old women, "this is not the
end of the world, and little good would it be to you to stay with us.
For as soon as we have broken all our needles and used up all our
thread we shall die, and then where would you be? Your sister with the
iron teeth would have you in a minute."

The little Prince cried bitterly, for he was very little and all