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good."
The children said, "Then show us how to sing better."
To this Ivan replied, "I will show you people who can sing better than
you." With that remark Ivan went to the barn and, securing a bundle
of straw, did as the little devil had directed him; and presently a
regiment of soldiers appeared in the village street, and he ordered them
to sing and dance.
The people were astonished and could not understand how Ivan had
produced the strangers.
The soldiers sang for some time, to the great delight of the villagers;
and when Ivan commanded them to stop they instantly ceased.
Ivan then ordered them off to the barn, telling the astonished and
mystified moujiks that they must not follow him. Reaching the barn,
he turned the soldiers again into straw and went home to sleep off the
effects of his debauch.
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