“Soldier. I wish good health to everyone who hears me, to everyone who sees me. I, dear gentlemen, am a retired soldier. I served with Tsar Saltan, fought, shed blood, and my time expired. Tsar Saltan himself ordered me to go home. And I went home, but I couldn’t get there. Either I’ll turn it in the wrong direction, or I’ll get involved in something that’s not my own business. I have a restless, soldier's heart. Take this, for example: my road bypassed this forest. And I’ll take it right into the thicket. Somehow it seemed painfully black to me, like a forest. Well, I think Baba Yaga offends people there! Shall I walk by the side, along the smooth path? No, no way. What a forest! I’ve been walking for seven days and haven’t met a single living soul. And it’s quiet all around, like at the bottom of the sea. The leaves don't rustle. Birds don't scream. There are no animal tracks to be seen. So you expect that either a forest snake will crawl out on you, or something else unprecedented, unheard of, which has scared away every living thing here. (Jumps up.) Here, here it is! Sneaks, sneaks with light steps. Crawl, crawl! Suddenly you won’t crawl to me! I can smell the enemy a mile away. (Looks into the thicket.) Oh, you, bitter grief! The shirt turns white behind the bushes. How is this possible? Oh you! Ah ah ah! A boy wanders through the forest alone. Who sent him here, into such a bad wilderness, into a dark thicket? Boy, oh boy! Come here, don't be afraid! Hello, orphan!..”