"And what must I do?" says Alenoushka, crying to think herself so
ugly.

"You must go to the river and bathe this afternoon," says the old
witch. "I will be there and put a spell on the water. Secretly you
must go, for if any one knows whither you have gone my spell will not
work."

So Alenoushka wrapped a shawl about her head, and slipped out of the
house and went to the river. Only the little lamb, Vanoushka, knew
where she had gone. He followed her, leaping about, and tossing his
little white tail. The old witch was waiting for her. She sprang out
of the bushes by the riverside, and seized Alenoushka, and tore off
her pretty white dress, and fastened a heavy stone about her neck, and
threw her from the bank into a deep place, so that she sank to the
bottom of the river. Then the old witch, the wicked hag, put on
Alenoushka's pretty white dress, and cast a spell, and made herself so
like Alenoushka to look at that nobody could tell the difference. Only
the little lamb had seen everything that had happened.

The fine gentleman came riding home in the evening, and he rejoiced
when he saw his dear Alenoushka well again, with plump pink cheeks,
and a smile on her rosy lips.

But the little lamb knew everything. He was sad and melancholy, and
would not eat, and went every morning and every evening to the river,
and there wandered about the banks, and cried, "Baa, baa," and was
answered by the sighing of the wind in the long reeds.