"Oh," said little Vanoushka, "my throat is so dry. I want a drink. I
must have a drink--just a little drink of cool water."

"We must go on," said Alenoushka, "till we come to a well. Then we
will drink."

They went on along the track, with their eyes burning and their
throats as dry as sand on a stove.

But presently Vanoushka cried out joyfully. He saw a horse's hoofmark
in the ground. And it was full of water, like a little well.

"Sister, sister," says he, "the horse has made a little well for me
with his great hoof, and now we can have a drink; and oh, but I am
thirsty!"

"Not yet, brother," says Alenoushka. "If you drink from the hoofmark
of a horse, you will turn into a little foal, and that would never
do."

"I am so very thirsty," says Vanoushka; but he did as his sister told
him, and they walked on together under the burning sun.

A little farther on Vanoushka saw the hoofmark of a cow, and there
was water in it glittering in the sun.

"Sister, sister," says Vanoushka, "the cow has made a little well for
me, and now I can have a drink."