The two older brothers were well-aware of their father's reluctance to see a fool as czar and a frog as czarina. Tearing himself away from the silk shirt, the czar regained his composure. Have your wives bake a loaf of bread for my breakfast tomorrow. Whoever has married the best baker will become the next czar. The frog wife found Ivan sulking in the garden staring at the noonday sun.
Morning is wiser than evening.
Maybe we will uncover her secret. Later that evening, just as the frog wife was about to peel off her skin and transform herself once more, she noticed the lawyer's daughter hiding behind a cabinet, and the merchant's daughter underneath a table. The frog wife, being clever, knocked a potted plant into some dough and kneaded it by jumping up and down. The two wives glanced at one another and nodded knowingly. The dirt from the potted plant, they concluded, was a secret ingredient that could turn plain white bread into a fine delicacy.