{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_19713/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_19713","id":"gutenberg_19713","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19713","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Short Stories","Children's Myths, Fairy Tales, etc.","Fairy tales -- Yugoslavia"],"text":"Produced by Jason Isbell, Irma Spehar, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n=THE LAUGHING\nPRINCE=\n\nA book of Jugoslav Fairy Tales\nand Folk Tales.\n\nRETOLD BY\nPARKER FILLMORE\n\nWith illustrations and decorations by Jay Van Everen.\n\n\nWhen Mr. Fillmore started his study of the folk lore of Eastern Europe,\nhe tapped a mine of treasure for children. The gorgeousness of the\nimagery in the stories, their rollicking humor, the adventures, were\nentirely new to child and adult readers. The stories in this third\nvolume reflect the folk lore of many races, for the country now known as\nJugoslavia has been one of the great highways and battlefields of the\nworld where Orient and Occident, Greek and Roman, Turk and Slav have\nfought out their national aspirations. Basically, it has the Slavic\nexuberance of imagination and humor, but it has also absorbed much of\nthe spirit and tales of the Near and Far East.\n\n_Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc._\n757 THIRD AVENUE, NEW YORK 17, N. Y.\n\n80-120\n\n\n_BY PARKER FILLMORE_\n\nCZECHOSLOVAK FAIRY TALES\nTHE SHOEMAKER'S APRON\n\n_Illustrated by Jan Matulka_\n\n\n\n\nTHE LAUGHING PRINCE\n\nA Book of Jugoslav Fairy Tales and Folk Tales\n\n\nBY\n\nPARKER FILLMORE\n\n\nWITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND DECORATIONS\n\nBY\n\nJAY VAN EVEREN\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nNEW YORK\n\nHARCOURT, BRACE & WORLD, INC.\n\nCOPYRIGHT, 1921, BY\n\nPARKER FILLMORE\n\nRENEWED BY LOUISE FILLMORE\n\n0.1.68\n\n\nPRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\n\n\n\n\nTO BUTTON\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nNOTE\n\n\nIn calling this _A Book of Jugoslav Fairy Tales and Folk Tales_ I have\nused the word Jugoslav in its literal sense of Southern Slav. The\nBulgars are just as truly Southern Slavs as the Serbs or Croats or any\nother of the Slav peoples now included within the state of Jugoslavia.\nMoreover in this case it would be particularly difficult to make the\nliterary boundaries conform strictly to the political boundaries since\nmuch the same stories and folk tales are current among all these Slav\npeoples of the Balkan Peninsula. The special student taking the variants\nof the same story might discover special differences that would mark\neach variant as the product of some one locality. The work of such a\nstudent would have philological and ethnological value but not a very\nstrong appeal to the general reader. My appeal is first of all to the\ngeneral reader--to the child who loves fairy tales and to the adult who\nloves them. I hope they will both find these stories entertaining and\namusing quite aside from any interest in their source.\n\nYet these tales as presented do give the reader a true idea of the\namazing vigor and the artistic inventiveness of the Jugoslav\nimagination, and also of the various influences, Oriental and Northern\nas well as Slavic, which have made that imagination what it is to-day.\nHere are gay picaresque tales of adventure--how they go on and on and\non!--charming little stories of sentiment, a few folk tales of stark\nsimplicity and grim humor, one story showing a superficial Turkish\ninfluence, and one spiritual allegory as deep and moving as anything in\nthe Russian.\n\nThe renderings in every case are my own and are not in any sense\ntranslations. I have taken the old stories and retold them in a new\nlanguage. To do them justice in this new language I have found it\nnecessary to present them with a new selection of detail and with an\noccasional shifting of emphasis. I do not mean by this that I have\ninvented detail in any unwarranted fashion. I haven't had to for any\nfolk tale, however bald, contains all sorts of things by implication.\nThe true story teller, it seems to me, is he who is able to grasp these\nimplications and turn them to his own use.\n\nI must confess that the setting in which I have placed the famous old\nSerbian nonsense story, _In my young days when I was an old, old man_,\nis my own invention. The nonsense story needs a setting and as it\nchanced I had one ready as I have long wanted to tell the world what was\nback of the determination of that princess who refused to eat until some\none had made her laugh.\n\nSo far as I know most of these stories are not familiar to English\nreaders--certainly not in this form. Madame Mijatovich uses one of them\nin her _Serbian Fairy Tales_, but I make no apology for offering a\nsprightlier version. Nor do I apologize for presenting any stories that\nmay have been included somewhere among the indifferent translations to\nwhich Andrew Lang lent his name.\n\nI am of course deeply indebted to the various people who told me these\nstories in the first place and to many scholarly folklorists, Jugoslav,\nCzechoslovak, Bulgarian, German, and English whose books and reports I\nhave studied.\n\nP. F.\n\n_Decoration Day, 1921._\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                          PAGE\n\nTHE LAUGHING PRINCE: The Story of the Boy Who\nCould Talk Nonsense                                         1\n\nBEAUTY AND THE HORNS: The Story of an Enchanted\nMaiden                                                     27\n\nTHE PIGEON'S BRIDE: The Story of a Princess Who\nKissed and Told                                            51\n\nTHE LITTLE LAME FOX: The Story of the Youngest\nBrother Who Found the Magic Grape-Vine and Married\nthe Golden Maiden                                          73\n\nTHE ENCHANTED PEAFOWL: The Story of the Golden\nApples, the Wicked Dragon, and the Magic Horse            107\n\nTHE DRAGON'S STRENGTH: The Story of the Youngest\nPrince Who Killed the Sparrow                             139\n\nTHE LITTLE SINGING FROG: The Story of a Girl\nWhose Parents were Ashamed of Her                         161\n\nTHE NIGHTINGALE IN THE MOSQUE: The Story of\nthe Sultan's Youngest Son and the Princess Flower o' the\nWorld                                                     171\n\nTHE GIRL IN THE CHEST: The Story of the Third\nSister Who was Brave and Good                             201\n\nTHE WONDERFUL HAIR: The Story of a Poor Man\nWho Dreamed of an Angel                                   219\n\nTHE BEST WISH: The Story of Three Brothers and an\nAngel                                                     229\n\nTHE VILAS' SPRING: The Story of the Brother Who\nKnew that Good was Stronger than Evil                     241\n\nLORD AND MASTER: The Story of the Man Who Understood\nthe Language of the Animals                               253\n\nTHE SILVER TRACKS: The Story of the Poor Man Who\nBefriended a Beggar                                       267\n\n\n\n\nTHE LAUGHING PRINCE\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of the Boy Who Could Talk Nonsense_\n\n\n\n\nTHE LAUGHING PRINCE\n\n\nThere was once a farmer who had three sons and one little daughter. The\neldest son was a studious boy who learned so much out of books that the\nfarmer said:\n\n\"We must send Mihailo to school and make a priest of him.\"\n\nThe second boy was a trader. Whatever you had he would get it from you\nby offering you something else for it. And always what he gave you was\nworth less than what you gave him.\n\n\"Jakov will make a fine peddler,\" the farmer said. \"He's industrious and\nsharp and some day he will probably be a rich man.\"\n\nBut Stefan, the farmer's youngest son, had no special talent and because\nhe didn't spend all his time with his nose in a book and because he\nnever made the best of a bargain his brothers scorned him. Militza, his\nlittle sister, loved him dearly for he was kind and jolly and in the\nevening he was always ready to tell her stories and play with her. But\nthe farmer, of course, listened to the older brothers.\n\n\"I don't know about poor Stefan,\" he used to say. \"He's a good boy but\nhe talks nonsense. I suppose he'll have to stay on the farm and work.\"\n\nNow the truth is the farm was a fine place for Stefan for he was strong\nand lusty and he liked to plow and harvest and he had a wonderful way\nwith the animals. He talked to them as if they were human beings and the\nhorses all whinnied when he came near, and the cows rubbed their soft\nnoses against his shoulder, and as for the pigs--they loved him so much\nthat whenever they saw him they used to run squealing between his legs.\n\n\"Stefan is nothing but a farmer!\" Mihailo used to say as though being a\nfarmer was something to be ashamed of.\n\nAnd Jakov said:\n\n\"If the village people could see the pigs following him about, how\nthey'd laugh at him! I hope when I go to the village to live he won't be\nvisiting me all the time!\"\n\nAnother thing the older brothers couldn't understand about Stefan was\nwhy he was always laughing and joking. He did the work of two men but\nwhether he was working or resting you could always hear him cracking his\nmerry jokes and laughing his jolly laugh.\n\n\"I think he's foolish!\" Mihailo said.\n\nJakov hoped that the village people wouldn't hear about his carryings\non.\n\n\"They'd laugh at him,\" he said, \"and they'd laugh at us, too, because\nwe're his brothers.\"\n\nBut Stefan didn't care. The more they frowned at him, the louder he\nlaughed, and in spite of their dark looks he kept on cracking his merry\njokes and talking nonsense. And every evening after supper his little\nsister, Militza, clapped her hands and cried:\n\n\"Now, Stefan, tell me a story! Tell me a story!\"\n\n\"Father,\" Mihailo would say, \"you ought to make him keep quiet! He's\nfoolish and all he does is fill Militza's head with nonsense!\"\n\nThis always made Militza very indignant and she would stamp her little\nfoot and say:\n\n\"He isn't foolish! He knows more than any one! And he can do more things\nthan any one else and he's the handsomest brother in the world!\"\n\nYou see Militza loved Stefan dearly and when you love a person of course\nyou think that person is wonderful. But the father supposed that Mihailo\nmust be right for Mihailo studied in books. So he shook his head and\nsighed every time he thought of Stefan.\n\nNow the kingdom in which the three brothers lived was ruled over by a\ngreat Tsar who had an only daughter. In disappointment that he had no\nson, the Tsar was having his daughter brought up as though she were a\nboy. He sent all over the world for tutors and teachers and had the poor\ngirl taught statecraft and law and philosophy and all the other things\nthat the heir to the throne ought to know.\n\nThe Princess because she was an obedient girl and because she loved her\nfather tried to spend all her time in study. But the dry old scholars\nwhom the Tsar employed as teachers were not amusing companions for a\nyoung girl and the first lady-in-waiting who was in constant attendance\nwas scarcely any better for she, too, was old and thin and very prim.\n\nIf the poor little Princess between her geography lesson and her\narithmetic lesson would peep for a moment into a mirror, the first\nlady-in-waiting would tap her arm reprovingly and say:\n\n\"My dear, vanity is not becoming in a princess!\"\n\nOne day the little Princess lost her temper and answered sharply:\n\n\"But I'm a girl even if I am a princess and I love to look in mirrors\nand I love to make myself pretty and I'd love to go to a ball every\nnight of my life and dance with handsome young men!\"\n\n\"You talk like the daughter of a farmer!\" the first lady-in-waiting\nsaid.\n\nThen the Princess, because she lost her temper still further, said\nsomething she should not have said.\n\n\"I wish I were the daughter of a farmer!\" she declared. \"Then I could\nwear pretty ribbons and go dancing and the boys would come courting me!\nAs it is I have to spend all my time with funny old men and silly old\nwomen!\"\n\nNow even if her tutors and teachers were funny looking old men, even if\nthe first lady-in-waiting was a silly old woman, the Princess should not\nhave said so. It hurt the feelings of the first lady-in-waiting and made\nher angry and she ran off to the Tsar at once and complained most\nbitterly.\n\n\"Is this my reward after all my years of loving service to your\ndaughter?\" she asked. \"It is true that I've grown old and thin looking\nafter her manners and now she calls me a silly old woman! And all the\nlearned wise men and scholars that you have gathered from the far\ncorners of the earth--she points her finger at them and calls them funny\nold men!\"\n\nThe fact is they were funny looking, most of them, but yet the first\nlady-in-waiting was right: the Princess should not have said so.\n\n\"And think of her ingratitude to yourself, O Tsar!\" the first\nlady-in-waiting continued. \"You plan to make her the heir to your throne\nand yet she says she wishes she were a farmer's daughter so that she\ncould deck herself out in ribbons and have the boys come courting her! A\nnice thing for a princess to say!\"\n\nThe Tsar when he heard this fell into an awful rage. (The truth is\nwhatever temper the Princess had she inherited direct from her father.)\n\n\"Wow! Wow!\" he roared, just that way. \"Send the Princess to me at once.\nI'll soon have her singing another tune!\"\n\nSo the first lady-in-waiting sent the Princess to her father and as soon\nas he saw her he began roaring again and saying:\n\n\"Wow! Wow! What do you mean--funny old men and silly old women?\"\n\nNow whenever the Tsar began roaring and saying, \"Wow! Wow!\" the Princess\nalways stiffened, and instead of being the sweet and obedient daughter\nshe usually was she became obstinate. Her pretty eyes would flash and\nher soft pretty face would harden and people would whisper: \"Mercy on\nus, how much she looks like her father!\"\n\n\"That's just what I mean!\" the Princess said. \"They're a lot of funny\nold men and silly old women and I'm tired of them! I want to be amused!\nI want to laugh!\"\n\n\"Wow! Wow! Wow!\" roared the Tsar. \"A fine princess you are! Go straight\nback to the schoolroom and behave yourself!\"\n\nSo the little Princess marched out of the throne room holding her head\nvery high and looking so much like the Tsar that the first\nlady-in-waiting was positively frightened.\n\nThe Princess went back to the schoolroom but she did not behave herself.\nShe was really very naughty. When the poor man who knew more than\nanybody in the world about the influence of the stars upon the destinies\nof nations came to give her a lesson, she threw his book out the window.\nWhen the superannuated old general who was teaching her military\nmanoeuvers offered her a diagram on which the enemy was represented by\na series of black dots and our soldiers by a series of red dots, she\ntook the paper and tore it in two. And worst of all when the old scholar\nwho was teaching her Turkish--for a princess must be able to speak all\nlanguages--dropped his horn spectacles on the floor, she deliberately\nstepped on them and broke them.\n\nWhen the Tsar heard all these things he just _wow-wowed_ something\nterrible.\n\n\"Lock that young woman in her chamber!\" he ordered. \"Feed her on bread\nand water until she's ready to apologize!\"\n\nBut the Princess, far from being frightened by this treatment, calmly\nannounced:\n\n\"I won't eat even your old bread and water until you send me some one\nwho will make me laugh!\"\n\nNow this frightened the Tsar because he knew how obstinate the Princess\ncould be on occasions. (He ought to know, too, for the Princess had that\nstreak of obstinacy direct from himself.)\n\n\"This will never do!\" he said.\n\nHe hurried to the Princess's chamber. He found her in bed with her\npretty hair spread out on the pillow like a golden fan.\n\n\"My dear,\" the Tsar said, \"I was joking. You don't have to eat only\nbread and water. You may have anything you want.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" the Princess said, \"but I'll never eat another bite of\nanything until you send me some one who will make me laugh. I'm tired of\nliving in this gloomy old castle with a lot of old men and old women who\ndo nothing but instruct me and with a father who always loses his\ntemper and says, 'Wow! Wow!'\"\n\n\"But it's a beautiful castle!\" the poor Tsar said. \"And I'm sure we're\nall doing our very best to educate you!\"\n\n\"But I want to be amused as well as educated!\" the little Princess said.\nAnd then, because she felt she was going to cry, she turned her face to\nthe wall and wouldn't say another word.\n\nWhat was the Tsar to do? He called together his councilors and asked\nthem how was the Princess to be made to laugh. The councilors were wise\nabout state matters but not one of them could suggest a means of amusing\nthe Princess. The Master of Ceremonies did indeed begin to say something\nabout a nice young man but instantly the Tsar roared out such a\nwrathful, \"Wow! Wow!\" that the Master of Ceremonies coughed and\npretended he hadn't spoken.\n\nThen the Tsar called together the scholars and the teachers and the\nfirst lady-in-waiting. He glared at them savagely and roared:\n\n\"Wow! Wow! A nice lot you are! I put you in charge of my daughter and\nnot one of you has sense enough to know that the poor child needs a\nlittle amusement! I have a good mind to have you all thrown into the\ndungeon!\"\n\n\"But, Your Majesty,\" quavered one poor old scholar, \"I was not employed\nas a buffoon but as a teacher of astrology!\"\n\n\"And I,\" another said, \"as a teacher of languages!\"\n\n\"And I as a teacher of philosophy!\"\n\n\"Silence!\" roared the Tsar. \"Between you all you have about killed my\npoor child! Now I ask you: With all your learning doesn't one of you\nknow how to make a young girl laugh?\"\n\nApparently not one of them did, for no one answered.\n\n\"Not even you?\" the Tsar said, looking at the first lady-in-waiting.\n\n\"When you called me to Court,\" the first lady-in-waiting answered,\ndrawing herself up in a most refined manner, \"you said you wished me to\nteach your daughter etiquette. As you said nothing about amusement,\nquite naturally I confined myself to the subject of behavior. If I do\nsay it myself, no one has ever been more devoted to duty than I. I am\nconstantly saying to her: 'That isn't the way a princess should act!' In\nfact for years there has hardly been a moment in the day when I haven't\ncorrected her for something!\"\n\n\"Poor child!\" groaned the Tsar. \"No wonder she wants a change! Oh, what\nfools you all are in spite of your learning! Don't you know that a young\ngirl is a young girl even if she is a Princess!\"\n\nWell, the scholars weren't any more help to the Tsar than the\ncouncilors, and finally in desperation he sent heralds through the land\nto announce that to any one who could make the Princess laugh he would\ngive three bags of gold.\n\nThree bags of gold don't grow on the bushes every day and instantly all\nthe youths and men and old men who had stories that their sweethearts\nand their wives and their daughters laughed at hurried to the castle.\n\nOne by one they were admitted to the Princess's chamber. They entered\nhopefully but when they saw the Tsar sitting at one side of the door\nmuttering, \"Wow! Wow!\" in his beard, and the old first lady-in-waiting\nat the other side of the door watching them scornfully, and the Princess\nherself in bed with her lovely hair spread out like a golden fan on the\npillow, they forgot their funny stories and hemmed and hawed and\nstammered and had finally, one after another, to be turned out in\ndisgrace.\n\nOne day went by and two and three and still the Princess refused to eat.\nIn despair the Tsar sent out his heralds again. This time he said that\nto any one who would make the Princess laugh he would give the\nPrincess's hand in marriage and make him joint heir to the kingdom.\n\n\"I had expected to wed her to the son of some great Tsar,\" he sighed,\n\"but I'd rather marry her to a farmer than see her die of starvation!\"\n\nThe heralds rode far and wide until every one, even the people on the\nmost distant farms, had heard of the Tsar's offer.\n\n\"I won't try again,\" said Mihailo, the oldest son of the farmer I've\nalready told you about. \"When I went there the day before yesterday I\nbegan telling her a funny story out of my Latin book but instead of\nlaughing she said: 'Oh, send him away!' So now she'll have to starve to\ndeath for all of me!\"\n\n\"Me, too!\" said Jakov, the second son. \"When I tried to tell her that\nfunny story of how I traded the moldy oats for the old widow's fat pig,\ninstead of laughing she looked me straight in the face and said:\n'Cheat!'\"\n\n\"Stefan ought to go,\" Mihailo suggested. \"Maybe she'd laugh at him!\nEverybody else does!\"\n\nHe spoke sneeringly but Stefan only smiled.\n\n\"Who knows? Perhaps I will go. If I do make her laugh then, O my\nbrothers, the laugh will be on you for I shall become Tsar and you two\nwill be known as my two poor brothers. Ho! Ho! Ho! What a joke that\nwould be!\"\n\nStefan laughed loud and heartily and his little sister joined him, but\nhis brothers looked at him sourly.\n\n\"He grows more foolish all the time!\" they told each other.\n\nWhen they were gone to bed, Militza slipped over to Stefan and whispered\nin his ear:\n\n\"Brother, you must go to the Princess. Tell her the story that begins:\n_In my young days when I was an old, old man_.... I think she'll just\nhave to laugh, and if she laughs then she can eat and she must be very\nhungry by this time.\"\n\nAt first Stefan said no, he wouldn't go, but Militza insisted and\nfinally, to please her, he said he would.\n\nSo early the next morning he dressed himself in his fine Sunday shirt\nwith its blue and red embroidery. He put on his bright red Sunday sash\nand his long shiny boots. Then he mounted his horse and before his\nbrothers were awake rode off to the Tsar's castle.\n\nThere he awaited his turn to be admitted to the Princess's chamber. When\nhe came in he was so young and healthy and vigorous that he seemed to\nbring with him a little of the freshness of outdoors. The first\nlady-in-waiting looked at him askance for without doubt he was a farmer\nlad and his table manners probably were not good. Well, he was a farmer\nlad and for that reason he didn't know that she was first\nlady-in-waiting. He glanced at her once and thought: \"What an ugly old\nwoman!\" and thereafter he didn't think of her at all. He glanced\nlikewise at the Tsar and the Tsar reminded him of a bull of his own. He\nwasn't afraid of the bull, so why be afraid of the Tsar?\n\nSuddenly he saw the Princess lying in bed with her lovely hair spread\nout on the pillow like a golden fan and for a moment he couldn't speak.\nThen he knelt beside the bed and kissed her hand.\n\n\"Princess,\" he said, \"I'm not learned and I'm not clever and I don't\nsuppose I can succeed where so many wise men have failed. And even if I\ndo make you laugh you won't have to marry me unless you want to because\nthe reason I really came was to please Militza.\"\n\n\"Militza?\"\n\n\"Yes, Princess, my little sister, Militza. She loves me very much and so\nshe thinks the stories I tell are funny and she laughs at them. Last\nnight she said to me: 'Stefan, you must go to the Princess and tell her\nthe story that begins: _In my young days when I was an old, old\nman_.... I think she'll just have to laugh and if she laughs then she\ncan eat and she must be very hungry by this time.'\"\n\n\"I am,\" the Princess said, with a catch in her voice. Then she added: \"I\nthink I like that little sister of yours and I think I like you, too. I\nwish you would tell me the story that begins: _In my young days when I\nwas an old, old man_....\"\n\n\"But, Princess, it's a very foolish story.\"\n\n\"The foolisher, the better!\"\n\nJust here the first lady-in-waiting tried to correct the Princess for of\ncourse she should have said: \"The more foolish, the better!\" but the\nTsar shut her up with a black frown and one fierce, \"Wow!\"\n\n\"Well, then,\" Stefan began:\n\n_In my young days when I was an old, old man I used to count my bees\nevery morning. It was easy enough to count the bees but not the beehives\nbecause I had too many hives. One day when I finished counting I found\nthat my best bee was missing. At once I saddled a rooster and set out to\nfind him._\n\n\"Father!\" cried the Princess. \"Did you hear what Stefan said? He said he\nsaddled his rooster!\"\n\n\"Umph!\" muttered the Tsar, and the first lady-in-waiting said severely:\n\n\"Princess, do not interrupt! Young man, continue.\"\n\n_His track led to the sea which I rode across on a bridge. The first\nthing I saw on the other side of the sea was my bee. There he was in a\nfield of millet harnessed to a plow. \"That's my bee!\" I shouted to the\nman who was driving him. \"Is that so?\" the man said, and without any\nwords he gave me back my bee and handed me a bag of millet to pay for\nthe plowing. I took the bag and tied it securely on the bee. Then I\nunsaddled the rooster and mounted the bee. The rooster, poor thing, was\nso tired that I had to take him by the hand and lead him along beside\nus._\n\n\"Father!\" the Princess cried, \"did you hear that? He took the rooster by\nthe hand! Isn't that funny!\"\n\n\"Umph!\" grunted the Tsar, and the first lady-in-waiting whispered:\n\n\"Hush! Let the young man finish!\"\n\n_Whilst we were crossing the bridge, the string of the bag broke and all\nmy millet spilled out. When night came I tied the rooster to the bee and\nlay down on the seashore to sleep. During the night some wolves came\nand killed my bee and when I woke up I found that all the honey had run\nout of his body. There was so much honey that it rose up and up until it\nreached the ankles of the valleys and the knees of the mountains. I took\na hatchet and swam down to a forest where I found two deer leaping about\non one leg. I shot at the deer with my hatchet, killed them, and skinned\nthem. With the skins I made two leather bottles. I filled these with the\nhoney and strapped them over the rooster's back. Then I rode home. I no\nsooner arrived home than my father was born. \"We must have holy water\nfor the christening,\" I said. \"I suppose I must go to heaven to fetch\nsome.\" But how was I to get there? I thought of my millet. Sure enough\nthe dampness had made it grow so well that its tops now reached the sky.\nSo all I had to do was to climb a millet stalk and there I was in\nheaven. Up there they had mown down some of my millet which they baked\ninto a loaf and were eating with boiled milk. \"That's my millet!\" I\nsaid. \"What do you want for it?\" they asked me. \"I want some holy water\nto christen my father who has just been born.\" So they gave me some holy\nwater and I prepared to descend again to earth. But on earth there was a\nviolent storm going on and the wind carried away my millet. So there I\nwas with no way of getting down. I thought of my hair. It was so long\nthat when I stood up it covered my ears and when I lay down it reached\nall the way to earth. So I pulled out a hair, tied it to a tree of\nheaven, and began descending by it. When it grew dark I made a knot in\nthe hair and just sat where I was. It was cold, so I took a needle which\nI happened to have in my coat, split it up, and lighted a fire with the\nchips._\n\n\"Oh, father!\" the Princess cried, \"Stefan says he split a needle into\nkindling wood! Isn't he funny!\"\n\n\"If you ask me--\" the first lady-in-waiting began, but before she could\nsay more the Tsar reached over and stepped on her toe so hard that she\nwas forced to end her sentence with a little squeally, \"Ouch!\" The\nPrincess, you see, was smiling and the Tsar was hoping that presently\nshe would burst into a laugh. So he motioned Stefan to continue.\n\n[Illustration: _Stefan Tells the Princess a Story_]\n\n_Then I lay down beside the fire and fell asleep. While I slept a spark\nfrom the fire fell on the hair and burned it through. I fell to earth\nwith such force that I sank into the ground up to my chest. I couldn't\nbudge, so I was forced to go home and get a spade and dig myself out. On\nthe way home I crossed a field_ _where the reapers were cutting corn.\nThe heat was so great that they had to stop work. \"I'll get our mare,\" I\nsaid, \"and then you'll feel cooler.\" You know our mare is two days long\nand as broad as midnight and she has willow trees growing on her back.\nSo I ran and got her and she cast such a cool shadow that the reapers\nwere at once able to go back to work. Now they wanted some fresh\ndrinking water, but when they went to the river they found it had frozen\nover. They came back to me and asked me would I get them some water.\n\"Certainly,\" I said. I went to the river myself, then I took off my head\nand with it I broke a hole in the ice. After that it was easy enough to\nfetch them some water. \"But where is your head?\" they asked. \"Oh!\" I\nsaid, \"I must have forgotten it!\"_\n\n\"Oh, father!\" the Princess cried with a loud laugh, \"he says he forgot\nhis head! Then, Stefan, what did you do? What did you do?\"\n\n_I ran back to the river and got there just as a fox was sniffing at my\nskull. \"Hi, there!\" I said, pulling the fox's tail. The fox turned\naround and gave me a paper on which was written these words: =NOW THE\nPRINCESS CAN EAT FOR SHE HAS LAUGHED AND STEFAN AND HIS LITTLE SISTER\nARE VERY HAPPY.=_\n\n\"What nonsense!\" the first lady-in-waiting murmured with a toss of her\nhead.\n\n\"Yes, beautiful nonsense!\" the Princess cried, clapping her hands and\ngoing off into peal after peal of merry laughter. \"Isn't it beautiful\nnonsense, father? And isn't Stefan a dear lad? And, father, I'm awfully\nhungry! Please have some food sent in at once and Stefan must stay and\neat with me.\"\n\nSo the Tsar had great trays of food brought in: roast birds and\nvegetables and wheaten bread and many kinds of little cakes and honey\nand milk and fruit. And Stefan and the Princess ate and made merry and\nthe Tsar joined them and even the first lady-in-waiting took one little\ncake which she crumbled in her handkerchief in a most refined manner.\n\nThen Stefan rose to go and the Tsar said to him:\n\n\"Stefan, I will reward you richly. You have made the Princess laugh and\nbesides you have not insisted on her marrying you. You are a fine lad\nand I shall never forget you.\"\n\n\"But, father,\" the Princess said, \"I don't want Stefan to go. He amuses\nme and I like him. He said I needn't marry him unless I wanted to but,\nfather, I think I want to.\"\n\n\"Wow! Wow!\" the Tsar roared. \"What! My daughter marry the son of a\nfarmer!\"\n\n\"Now, father,\" the Princess said, \"it's no use your _wow-wowing_ at me\nand you know it isn't. If I can't marry Stefan I won't marry any one.\nAnd if I don't marry any one I'm going to stop eating again. So that's\nthat!\" And still holding Stefan's hand, the Princess turned her face to\nthe wall.\n\nWhat could the poor Tsar do? At first he fumed and raged but as usual\nafter a day or two he came around to the Princess's way of thinking. In\nfact it soon seemed to him that Stefan had been his choice from the\nfirst and when one of his councilors remarked: \"Then, Your Majesty,\nthere's no use sending word to the neighboring kings that the Princess\nhas reached a marriageable age and would like to look over their sons,\"\nthe Tsar flew into an awful temper and roared:\n\n\"Wow! Wow! You blockhead! Neighboring kings, indeed, and their\ngood-for-nothing sons! No, siree! The husband I want for my daughter is\nan honest farmer lad who knows how to work and how to play! That's the\nkind of son-in-law we need in this kingdom!\"\n\nSo Stefan and the little Princess were married and from that day the\ncastle was no longer gloomy but rang with laughter and merriment.\nPresently the people of the kingdom, following the example of their\nrulers, were laughing, too, and cracking jokes and, strange to say, they\nsoon found they were working all the better for their jollity.\n\nLaughter grew so fashionable that even Mihailo and Jakov were forced to\ntake it up. They didn't do it very well but they practised at it\nconscientiously. Whenever people talked about Stefan, they always pushed\nforward importantly and said:\n\n\"Ho! Ho! Ho! Do you mean Stefan, the Laughing Prince? Ha! Ha! Ha! Why,\ndo you know, he's our own brother!\"\n\nAs for Militza, the Princess had her come to the castle and said to her:\n\n\"I owe all my happiness to you, my dear, for you it was who knew that of\ncourse I would laugh at Stefan's nonsense! What sensible girl\nwouldn't?\"\n\n\n\n\nBEAUTY AND THE HORNS\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of an Enchanted Maiden_\n\n\n\n\nBEAUTY AND THE HORNS\n\n\nThere was once a rich man who when he was dying called his son to his\nbedside and said:\n\n\"Danilo, my son, I am leaving you my riches. The only thing I ask of you\nis this: close your ears to all reports of an enchanted maiden who is\nknown as Peerless Beauty and when the time comes that you wish to marry\nchoose for wife some quiet sensible girl of your native village.\"\n\nNow if the father had not mentioned Peerless Beauty all might have been\nwell. Danilo might never have heard of her and after a time he would\nprobably have fallen in love with a girl of his native village and\nmarried her. As it was, after his father's death he kept saying to\nhimself:\n\n\"Peerless Beauty, the enchanted maiden of whom my father warned me! I\nwonder is she really as beautiful as all that! I wonder where she\nlives!\"\n\nHe thought about her until he could think of nothing else.\n\n\"Peerless Beauty! Peerless Beauty! Oh, I must see this enchanted maiden\neven if it costs me my life!\"\n\nHis father had a brother, a wise old man, who was supposed to know\neverything in the world.\n\n\"I will go to my uncle,\" the young man said. \"Perhaps he will tell me\nwhere I can find Peerless Beauty.\"\n\nSo he went to his uncle and said:\n\n\"My dear uncle, my father as he lay dying told me about a wonderful\nmaiden called Peerless Beauty. Can you tell me where she lives because I\nwant to see her for myself and judge whether she is as beautiful as my\nfather said.\"\n\nHis uncle looked at him gravely and shook his head.\n\n\"My poor boy, how can I tell you where that enchanted maiden lives when\nI know it would mean death to you if ever you saw her? Think no more\nabout her but go, find some suitable maid in the village, and marry her\nlike a sensible young man.\"\n\nBut his uncle's words, far from dissuading Danilo, only excited him the\nmore.\n\n\"If my uncle knows where Peerless Beauty lives,\" he thought, \"other men\nalso know.\"\n\nSo one by one he went to all the old men in the village and asked them\nwhat they knew of Peerless Beauty. One by one they shook their heads and\ntold him that Peerless Beauty was no maiden for him to be thinking\nabout.\n\n\"Put her out of your mind,\" they said. \"These enchanted maidens are a\nsnare to young men. What you want to do is marry some quiet industrious\ngirl here in the village and settle down like a sensible young man.\"\n\nBut the oftener Danilo heard this advice, the more firmly convinced he\nbecame that it was just what he did not want to do.\n\n\"Time enough to settle down after I've seen Peerless Beauty,\" he told\nhimself. \"She must be beautiful indeed, or all these old men would not\nbe so anxious to keep me from seeing her. Well, if they won't tell me\nwhere she is, I'll go out in the world and find her for myself.\"\n\nSo he put on rich clothes as befitted his wealth, took a bag of the gold\nhis father had left him, mounted his horse, and rode off into the world.\nEverywhere he went he made inquiries about Peerless Beauty and\neverywhere he found old men who knew about the enchanted maiden but\nwould tell him nothing. Every one of them advised him to go home like a\nsensible young man and think no more about her. But all they said only\nmade him the more determined to see the maiden for himself.\n\nFinally one day as evening approached he came to a little hut in the\nwoods. At the door of the hut sat a poor old woman. She held out her\nhand as he passed and begged an alms. Danilo, being a kind hearted young\nman, gave her a gold piece.\n\n\"May God reward you!\" the old woman said.\n\n\"Granny,\" Danilo asked, \"can you tell me the way to Peerless Beauty?\"\n\n\"Aye, my son, that I can but he is a rash youth who seeks that maiden!\nIt were better for you to turn back than to go on!\"\n\n\"But I'm not going to turn back!\" Danilo declared. \"Whatever the outcome\nI'm going to find Peerless Beauty and see for myself why all men fear\nher.\"\n\nWhen the old woman saw that Danilo was determined, she gave up pleading\nwith him and pointed out a faint trail in the forest which, she told\nhim, would lead him to Peerless Beauty's castle.\n\nHe slept that night in the old woman's hut and early next morning set\nout on the forest trail. By afternoon he reached the castle.\n\n\"What do you want?\" the guards demanded roughly.\n\n\"I want to see Peerless Beauty.\"\n\n\"Have you gold?\" they asked him.\n\nDanilo showed them his bag of ducats.\n\nThey led him into a hall of the castle and told him to put his gold on a\ntable. If he did so, perhaps Peerless Beauty would show herself and\nperhaps she wouldn't.\n\nDanilo did as the guards directed and then faced a curtain behind which,\nthey told him, Peerless Beauty was seated. The curtain opened a little,\nbut instead of showing her face Peerless Beauty extended only one\nfinger. However, that finger was so ravishingly beautiful that Danilo\nalmost fainted with delight. He would have stayed gazing on that one\nenchanting finger for hours if the guards had not taken him roughly by\nthe shoulders and thrown him out of the castle.\n\n\"Come again when you've got more gold!\" they shouted after him.\n\nLike a man in a dream Danilo rode back to the old woman's hut.\n\n\"Now, my son, are you satisfied?\" she asked him. \"Are you ready now to\ngo home and settle down like a sensible young man?\"\n\n\"Oh, granny!\" Danilo raved. \"Such a finger! I must see that finger again\nif it cost me my whole fortune!\"\n\nHe slept that night in the old woman's hut and the next day returned to\nhis native village. There he got another bag of the golden ducats which\nhis father had left him and at once started back to the castle of\nPeerless Beauty.\n\nThis time that heartless maiden stripped him again of his gold, showed\nhim two of her enchanting fingers, and as before had her guards throw\nhim out of the castle.\n\n\"Come again when you've got more gold!\" they shouted after him.\n\nThat's exactly what the poor young man did. He went back and back until\nthe fortune that his father had left him was entirely squandered. And\nall he had seen of Peerless Beauty up to that time were the fingers of\none hand! Shouldn't you suppose that now with all his wealth lost he\nwould get over his foolish infatuation? Well, he didn't.\n\n\"I must go back again!\" he kept telling himself.\n\nHis gold was gone but he still had his father's house. It was a big old\nhouse with garrets and cellars.\n\n\"Perhaps if I hunt I shall find some treasures hidden away in odd\ncorners,\" Danilo said.\n\nSo he hunted upstairs and down. He opened old boxes and rummaged about\namong the dark rafters. One day he came upon a funny looking little cap.\n\n\"I wonder whose this was,\" he thought to himself.\n\nHe went to a mirror and tried the cap on. Then a strange thing happened.\nThe moment the cap touched his head, Danilo disappeared.\n\n\"Ah!\" he cried, \"it's a magic cap and the moment I put it on I become\ninvisible! Now I can slip into Peerless Beauty's chamber and see her\nlovely face!\"\n\nWith his magic cap pulled tightly down over his forehead, he set off\nonce more for Peerless Beauty's castle. Sure enough he was able to pass\nunseen the guards at the gate, he was able to go boldly into the great\nhall, and beyond it through the curtain into Peerless Beauty's own\nchamber.\n\nThe Beauty was seated with her back to the curtain and a serving maid\nwas combing out her hair for the night. It was lovely hair and it fell\ndown over Beauty's shoulders like a mantle of gold. At mere sight of it\nDanilo was so overcome with emotion that he sighed.\n\n\"What's that?\" Beauty cried. \"There's some one in my chamber!\"\n\nThe serving maid looked under the bed and behind the chairs and in the\ncorners.\n\n\"There's no one here, my lady.\"\n\n\"That's strange!\" Beauty said. \"I feel as though some one were looking\nat me.\"\n\nWhen Danilo saw the actual face of the enchanted maiden, it was all he\ncould do to keep from crying aloud. She was so unutterably beautiful\nthat he almost swooned away in ecstacy.\n\nPresently the maiden went to bed and fell into an uneasy sleep. The\nlight of a single candle shed a faint radiance over her face making it\nlovelier than ever. Through all the long hours of night Danilo stood\nperfectly still, gazing at her, afraid almost to breathe lest he should\ndisturb her.\n\n\"Unless I win her for wife,\" he thought to himself, \"I shall nevermore\nbe happy!\"\n\nWhen morning came the maiden awoke with a start and said:\n\n\"There's some one looking at me! Who is it? Who is it?\"\n\n\"It's only your poor Danilo,\" a voice answered.\n\n\"Danilo? Who is Danilo?\"\n\n\"The youth whom you have been treating so cruelly. But though you have\ntreated me cruelly, I love you still!\"\n\n\"If you love me still,\" the maiden said, \"let me see you.\"\n\nDanilo took off the magic cap and there he stood, a handsome youth, at\nthe foot of her bed. Then the crafty maiden spoke him fair and Danilo\ntold her about the magic cap, and when she said to him that she repented\nhaving treated him so cruelly and asked him to let her see the cap, the\npoor young man was so dazzled by her beauty and her seeming kindness\nthat he handed it to her at once.\n\nInstantly she clapped it on her head and disappeared. Then she laughed\nin derision and called out loudly to the guards:\n\n\"Ho, there! Take out this young man and drive him forth! Let him return\nwhen he has another treasure to offer me!\"\n\nSo the guards dragged Danilo out and drove him away.\n\nWith no more gold, with no more magic cap, Danilo returned to his\nfather's house.\n\n\"Perhaps there are other treasures hidden away,\" he thought. \"I'll\nsearch further.\"\n\nIn his search he came upon an old pitcher and thinking it might be\nsilver he began rubbing it. Instantly there was a clap of thunder and a\ncompany of soldiers appeared. Their captain saluted Danilo respectfully\nand said:\n\n\"We are the servants of that magic pitcher. What does our master wish?\"\n\n\"Magic pitcher?\" stammered Danilo. \"And am I your master?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said the captain, \"you are our master as long as you hold the\nmagic pitcher in your hands.\"\n\n\"You may disappear now,\" Danilo said. \"I will rub the pitcher when I\nneed you.\"\n\nDelighted with this unexpected good fortune, he hurried off to the woods\nto the hut of the old woman who had befriended him before. He showed her\nthe pitcher and demonstrated for her how it worked. Then he asked her to\ncarry a message to Peerless Beauty.\n\n\"Tell her,\" he said, \"that unless she consents to marry me at once I'll\nlead a mighty army against her, take her captive, and then send her off\nin exile to that howling wilderness which people call the Donkeys'\nParadise.\"\n\n\"I will deliver your message,\" the old woman said, \"on condition that\nyou promise me to be on your guard this time. Don't let the maiden trick\nyou again. She is under an enchantment that makes her cruel and crafty\nand the enchantment will never be broken until she meets a man upon whom\nher wiles have no effect.\"\n\n\"Trust me this time,\" Danilo said. \"I've had my lesson.\"\n\nSo the old woman delivered the message and when Peerless Beauty\nreceived it with scorn, Danilo at once set out for the castle with the\nmagic pitcher in his hand. He began rubbing and every time he rubbed a\ncompany of soldiers appeared. Soon the castle was surrounded by a great\narmy and in fright and dismay Peerless Beauty sent out word that she was\nready to make an unconditional surrender.\n\nWhen Danilo entered the castle he found her humble and meek.\n\n\"I have treated you cruelly,\" she said. \"Now I am in your power, do with\nme what you will.\" And she began weeping softly until the sight of her\ntears drove Danilo distracted.\n\n\"Weep no more, dear lady!\" he cried. \"You have nothing to fear from me!\nI love you! I am your slave!\"\n\nThe Peerless one slowly dried her tears.\n\n\"If you love me as you say you do, you will tell me by what magic you\nhave raised this great army.\"\n\nThen Danilo, forgetting the old woman's warning, took the magic pitcher\nout of his shirt and showed the maiden how it worked.\n\n\"Ah!\" she murmured wonderingly. \"It looks like any old pitcher! Please,\nDanilo, let me see it in my own hands.\"\n\nDanilo handed her the pitcher and, quick as a flash, she rubbed it.\nThere was a clap of thunder, a company of soldiers appeared, and their\ncaptain saluting her respectfully said:\n\n\"What does the mistress of the pitcher want?\"\n\n\"Nay!\" cried Danilo, \"it is I who own the pitcher, not she!\"\n\n\"We are the servants,\" the captain said, \"of whoever holds the pitcher.\"\n\nAt that Peerless Beauty laughed loud and scornfully until the castle\nrang with her merriment.\n\n\"Seize that wretch!\" she said, pointing to Danilo. \"Tie his hands and\ndrive him out in exile to the Donkeys' Paradise! Let him stay there\nuntil he has another treasure to present me!\"\n\nSo they drove Danilo out to the wilderness and left him there.\n\nHe wandered about for many days hungry and thirsty, subsisting on roots\nand berries, and having for drink only the water that collected in the\nhoof prints of the wild beasts.\n\n\"See what I've come to!\" he cried aloud. \"Why didn't I heed the old\nwoman's warning! If I had, I should have broken the evil enchantment\nthat binds my Peerless Beauty and all would have been well!\"\n\nOne day as he wandered about he came upon a vine that was laden with\ngreat clusters of luscious red grapes. He fell upon them ravenously and\nate bunch after bunch. Suddenly he felt something in his hair and\nlifting his hands he found that horns had grown out all over his head.\n\n\"Fine grapes these are!\" he exclaimed, \"to bring out horns on a person's\nhead!\"\n\nHowever, he was so hungry that he kept on eating until his head was one\nmass of horns.\n\nThe next day he found a vine that had clusters of white grapes. He began\neating the white grapes and he hadn't finished a bunch before the horns\nall fell off his head.\n\n\"Ha!\" he said. \"The red grapes put horns on and the white grapes take\nthem off! That's a trick worth knowing!\"\n\nHe took some reeds and fashioned two baskets one of which he filled with\nred grapes and the other with white grapes. Then staining his face with\nthe dark juice of a leaf until he looked brown and sunburned like a\ncountryman, he went back to Peerless Beauty's castle. There he marched\nup and down below the Peerless one's window crying his wares like a\nhuckster:\n\n\"Sweet grapes for sale! Who wants my fresh sweet grapes!\"\n\nNow it was not the season for grapes, so Peerless Beauty when she heard\nthe cry was surprised and said to her serving maid:\n\n\"Go quickly and buy me some grapes from that huckster and mind you don't\neat one yourself!\"\n\nThe serving maid hurried out to Danilo and he sold her some of the red\ngrapes. As she carried them in, she couldn't resist the temptation of\nslipping a few into her mouth. Instantly some horns grew out on her\nhead.\n\n\"That's to punish me for disobeying my mistress!\" the poor girl cried.\n\"Oh, dear, what shall I do?\"\n\nShe was afraid to show herself to Peerless Beauty, so she pretended she\nwas taken sick and she went to bed and pulled the sheet over her head\nand sent in the grapes by another serving maid.\n\nPeerless Beauty ate them all before she discovered their frightful\nproperty. Then there was a great to-do, and cries of anger and of\nfright, and a quick sending out of the guards to find the huckster. But\nthe huckster had disappeared.\n\nWhat could Peerless Beauty do now? She tried to pull the horns out but\nthey wouldn't come. She tried to cut them off but they resisted the edge\nof the sharpest knife. She was too proud to show herself with horns, so\nshe swathed her head with jewels and ribbons and pretended she was\nwearing an elaborate head-dress.\n\nThen she sent heralds through the land offering a huge reward to any one\nwho could cure her serving maid of some strange horns that had grown out\non her head. You see she thought if she could get hold of some one who\nwould cure the maid, then she could make him cure her, too.\n\nWell, doctors and quacks and all sorts of people came and tried every\nkind of remedy, but all in vain. The horns stayed firmly rooted.\n\nA whole week went by and when the last of the quacks had come and gone,\nDanilo, disguised as an old physician, presented himself and craved\naudience with the Peerless one. He carried two small jars in his hands\none of which was filled with a conserve made from the white grapes and\nthe other with a conserve made from the red grapes.\n\nPeerless Beauty, her horns swathed in silk and gleaming with jewels,\nreceived him coldly.\n\n\"Are you one more quack?\" she asked.\n\n\"Not a quack,\" he said, bowing low, \"but a man who has happened upon a\nstrange secret of nature. I can cure your serving maid of her horns\nprovided she confess to me all her misdeeds and hand over to me anything\nshe has that does not belong to her.\"\n\nPeerless Beauty had him shown to the room where the serving maid lay in\nbed. The poor frightened girl at once confessed that she had stolen a\nfew of her mistress's grapes and eaten them. Danilo spoke kindly to her,\ngave her some of the white grape conserve, and as soon as she had tasted\nit the horns of course dropped off.\n\nThereupon Peerless Beauty led Danilo to her own chamber, ordered all her\npeople out, and then acknowledged that she, too, was suffering from\nhorns.\n\n\"I am sure I can cure you,\" Danilo told her, \"provided you confess to me\nall your misdeeds and hand over to me whatever you have that belongs to\nsome one else.\"\n\n\"I cheated a foolish young man out of five bags of gold,\" Peerless\nBeauty said. \"Here they are in this chest. Take them.\"\n\nDanilo opened the chest and took out his own five bags of gold.\n\n\"Is that all?\" he asked.\n\n[Illustration: _The Magic Pitcher_]\n\n\"Yes, that is all.\"\n\nDanilo gave her some of the red grape conserve and of course, instead of\nthe horns already on her head falling off, more grew on.\n\n\"You're not telling me the truth,\" Danilo said, \"and I can't cure you.\nThere's no use my treating you further.\"\n\nHe turned to go and Peerless Beauty, in great fright, begged him to\nstay.\n\n\"I do remember another misdeed,\" she confessed. \"I took by trickery a\nmagic pitcher from the same foolish young man.\"\n\nShe gave Danilo the pitcher and he hid it in his shirt.\n\n\"Is that all?\"\n\n\"Yes, that is all.\"\n\nDanilo gave her some more of the red grape conserve and, of course, more\nhorns grew out on her head. Then he pretended to get angry.\n\n\"How can you expect to be cured when you don't tell me the truth? I told\nyou I could not cure you unless you confessed all!\"\n\nPeerless Beauty wanted much to keep the magic cap but when the strange\nphysician thundered and scowled and threatened again to leave her, more\nhorned than ever, she acknowledged that she had taken the cap, too, and\nhanded it over.\n\nThis time Danilo gave her some of the white grape conserve and as soon\nas she had eaten it all the horns fell off and her head shimmered and\nshone as of old with her beautiful hair.\n\nThen Danilo told her who he was and at once the maiden sought to ensnare\nhim again with her wiles.\n\n\"What a wonderful man you are, Danilo! I could love you now if you loved\nme, but I know of course that you will never love me again after the\ncruel way I have treated you!\"\n\n\"But I do love you!\" Danilo cried. \"I do love you!\"\n\n\"No, you don't!\" she said, and she pretended to weep. \"If you did love\nme, you'd tell me where you found those red grapes and what this magic\nconserve is made of. But of course you don't love me enough to tell me.\"\n\nBecause she looked more beautiful than ever with the tears on her lovely\ncheeks, Danilo was about to tell her what she wanted to know when he\nremembered the old woman's warning. That was enough. He hardened his\nheart and declared:\n\n\"No! I'll never tell you! Do you hear me: I'll never tell you!\"\n\nShe wept and implored him and used all her wiles, but Danilo remembering\nthe past was firm. And presently he had the reward that a man always has\nwhen he's firm, for as soon as it was evident that she could no longer\nbefool him, the evil enchantment that bound her broke with a snap and\nPeerless Beauty became a human maiden as gentle and sweet and loving as\nshe was beautiful.\n\nShe knelt at Danilo's feet and humbly begged his pardon and promised, if\nhe would still marry her, to make him the most dutiful wife in the\nworld.\n\nSo Danilo married Peerless Beauty and with the servants of the magic\npitcher transported her and her castle and her riches together with the\nold woman who had befriended them both to his own native village. There\nhe still lives happy and prosperous.\n\nHis uncle and all the old men in the village take credit to themselves\nfor the success of his adventures.\n\n\"It is due entirely to us,\" they tell any one who will listen to them,\n\"that Danilo went out in search of Peerless Beauty in the first place.\nWhen he came to us and asked our advice we said to him: 'Go, by all\nmeans! You're young and brave and of course you'll win her!' If we\nhadn't urged him to go, he would probably have settled down here at\nhome, married some quiet village girl, and never be heard of again!\"\n\nThat's how the old men talk now, but we know what they really did say at\nthe time!\n\nYet after all that doesn't matter. All that matters is that Danilo and\nPeerless Beauty love each other and are happy.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE PIGEON'S BRIDE\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of a Princess Who Kissed and Told_\n\n\n\n\nTHE PIGEON'S BRIDE\n\n\nThere was once a King who had an only daughter. She was as lovely as a\nprincess ought to be and by the time she reached a marriageable age the\nfame of her beauty had spread far and wide over all the world.\nNeighboring kings and even distant ones were already sending envoys to\nher father's court begging permission to offer their sons as suitors to\nthe Princess's hand. As he had no son of his own the Princess's father\nwas delighted that the day was fast approaching when he might have a\nson-in-law, and long before even the name of any particular prince was\ndiscussed the Princess's mother had planned the wedding down to its last\ndetail.\n\nThe Princess alone was uninterested.\n\n\"I'm not ready to get married yet,\" she'd say to her parents every day\nwhen they'd begin telling her about the various princes who were anxious\nto gain her favor. \"Why such haste? I'm young and there's plenty of\ntime. Besides, just now I'm too busy with my embroidery to be bothered\nwith a crowd of young men.\"\n\nWith that, before the King could reprove her, the Princess would throw\nher arms about his neck, kiss him under the corner of his mustache, and\ngo flying off to the tower-room where she had her embroidery frame.\n\nHer mother, the Queen, was much upset by the Princess's attitude.\n\n\"In my youth,\" she said, \"girls were not like this. We were brought up\nto think that courtship and marriage were the most important events in\nour lives. I don't know what's getting into the heads of the young girls\nnowadays!\"\n\nBut the King, who was still smiling from the tickling little kiss which\nthe Princess had planted under the corner of his mustache, always\nanswered:\n\n\"Tut! Tut! We needn't worry yet! Take my word for it when some\nparticular young man comes along she'll be interested fast enough!\"\n\nAt this the Queen, ending the discussion every day with the same words,\nwould shake her head and declare:\n\n\"I tell you it isn't natural for a girl to be more interested in\nembroidery than in a long line of handsome young suitors!\"\n\nThe Princess was interested in her embroidery--there's no doubt about\nthat. She spent every moment she could in the tower-room, working and\nsinging. The tower was high up among the treetops. It was reached by\nwinding stairs so narrow and so many that no one any older than the\nPrincess would care to climb them. The Princess flew up them like a\nbird, scarcely pausing for breath. At the top of the stairs was a\ntrap-door which was the only means of entrance into the tower-room. Once\nin the tower-room with the bolt of the trap-door securely fastened, the\nPrincess was safe from interruption and could work away at her\nembroidery to her heart's content. The tower had windows on all sides,\nso the Princess as she sat at her embroidery frame could look out north,\neast, south, and west.\n\nThe clouds sailed by in the sky, the wind blew and at once the leaves in\nthe treetops began murmuring and whispering among themselves, and the\nbirds that went flying all over the world would often alight on some\nbranch near the tower and sing to the Princess as she worked or chatter\nsome exciting story that she could almost understand.\n\n\"What!\" the Princess would think to herself as she looked out north,\neast, south, and west. \"Leave my tower and my beautiful embroidery to\nbecome the wife of some conceited young man! Never!\"\n\nFrom this remark you can understand perfectly well that the particular\nyoung man of whom her father spoke had not yet come along. And I'm sure\nyou'll also know that shutting herself up in the tower-room and bolting\nthe trap-door was not going to keep him away when it was time for him to\ncome. Yet I don't believe that you'd have recognized him when he did\ncome any more than the Princess did. This is how it happened:\n\nOne afternoon when as usual she was working at her embroidery and\nsinging as she worked, suddenly there was a flutter of wings at the\neastern window and a lovely Pigeon came flying into the room. It circled\nthree times about the Princess's head and then alighted on the\nembroidery frame. The Princess reached out her hand and the bird,\ninstead of taking fright, allowed her to stroke its gleaming neck. Then\nshe took it gently in her hands and fondled it to her bosom, kissing its\nbill and smoothing its plumage with her lips.\n\n\"You beautiful thing!\" she cried. \"How I love you!\"\n\n\"If you really love me,\" the Pigeon said, \"have a bowl of milk here at\nthis same hour to-morrow and then we'll see what we'll see.\"\n\nWith that the bird spread its wings and flew out the western window.\n\nThe Princess was so excited that for the rest of the afternoon she\nforgot her embroidery.\n\n\"Did the Pigeon really speak?\" she asked herself as she stood staring\nout the western window, \"or have I been dreaming?\"\n\nThe next day when she climbed the winding stairs she went slowly for she\ncarried in her hands a brimming bowl of milk.\n\n\"Of course it won't come again!\" she said, and she made herself sit down\nquietly before the embroidery frame and work just as though she expected\nnothing.\n\nBut exactly at the same hour as the day before there was a flutter of\nwings at the eastern window, the sound of a gentle _coo! coo!_ and there\nwas the Pigeon ready to be loved and caressed.\n\n\"You beautiful creature!\" the Princess cried, kissing its coral beak and\nsmoothing its neck with her lips, \"how I love you! And see, I have\nbrought you the bowl of milk that you asked for!\"\n\nThe bird flew over to the bowl, poised for a moment on its brim, then\nsplashed into the milk as though to take a bath.\n\nThe Princess laughed and clapped her hands and then, as she looked, she\nsaw a strange thing happen. The bird's feathers opened like a shirt and\nout of the feather shirt stepped a handsome youth.\n\n(You remember I told you how surprised the Princess was going to be.\nAnd you're surprised, too, aren't you?)\n\nHe was so handsome that all the Princess could say was, \"Oh!\"\n\nHe came slowly towards her and knelt before her.\n\n\"Dear Princess,\" he said, \"do not be frightened. If it had not been for\nyour sweet words yesterday when you said you loved me I should never\nhave been able to leave this feather shirt. Do not turn from me now\nbecause I am a man and not a pigeon. Love me still if you can, for I\nlove you. It was because I fell in love with you yesterday when I saw\nyou working at your embroidery that I flew in by the open window and let\nyou caress me.\"\n\nFor a long time the Princess could only stare at the kneeling youth, too\namazed to speak. He was so handsome that she forgot all about the pigeon\nhe used to be, she forgot her embroidery, she forgot everything. She\nhadn't supposed that any young man in the whole world could be so\nhandsome! Why, just looking at him, she could be happy forever and ever\nand ever!\n\n\"Would you rather I were still a pigeon?\" the young man asked.\n\n\"No! No! No!\" the Princess cried. \"I like you ever so much better this\nway!\"\n\nThe young man gravely bowed his head and kissed her hand and the\nPrincess blushed and trembled and wished he would do it again. She had\nnever imagined that any kiss could be so wonderful!\n\nThey passed the afternoon together and it seemed to the Princess it was\nthe happiest afternoon of all her life. As the sun was sinking the youth\nsaid:\n\n\"Now I must leave you and become a pigeon again.\"\n\n\"But you'll come back, won't you?\" the Princess begged.\n\n\"Yes, I'll come back to-morrow but on one condition: that you don't tell\nany one about me. I'll come back every day at the same hour but if ever\nyou tell about me then I won't be able to come back any more.\"\n\n\"I'll never tell!\" the Princess promised.\n\nThen the youth kissed her tenderly, dipped himself in the milk, went\nback into his feather shirt, and flew off as a pigeon.\n\nThe next day he came again and the next and the next and the Princess\nfell so madly in love with him that all day long and all night long,\ntoo, she thought of nothing else. She no longer touched her embroidery\nbut day after day sat idle in the tower-room just awaiting the hour of\nhis arrival. And every day it seemed to the King and the Queen and all\nthe people about the Court that the Princess was becoming more and more\nbeautiful. Her cheeks kept growing pinker, her eyes brighter, her lovely\nhair more golden.\n\n\"I must say sitting at that foolish embroidery agrees with her,\" the\nKing said.\n\n\"No, it isn't that,\" the Queen told him. \"It's the big bowl of milk she\ndrinks every afternoon. You know milk is very good for the complexion.\"\n\n\"Milk indeed!\" murmured the Princess to herself, and she blushed rosier\nthan ever at thought of her wonderful secret.\n\nBut a princess can't keep growing more and more beautiful without\neverybody in the world hearing about it. The neighboring kings soon\nbegan to feel angry and suspicious.\n\n\"What ails this Princess?\" they asked among themselves. \"Isn't one of\nour sons good enough for her? Is she waiting for the King of Persia to\ncome as a suitor or what? Let us stand together on our rights and demand\nto know why she won't consider one of our sons!\"\n\nSo they sent envoys to the Princess's father and he saw at once that the\nmatter had become serious.\n\n\"My dear,\" he said to the Princess, \"your mother and I have humored you\nlong enough. It is high time that you had a husband and I insist that\nyou allow the sons of neighboring kings to be presented to you next\nweek.\"\n\n\"I won't do it!\" the Princess declared. \"I'm not interested in the sons\nof the neighboring kings and that's all there is about it!\"\n\nHer father looked at her severely.\n\n\"Is that the way for a princess to talk? Persist in this foolishness and\nyou may embroil your country in war!\"\n\n\"I don't care!\" the Princess cried, bursting into tears. \"I can't marry\nany of them, so why let them be presented?\"\n\n\"Why can't you marry any of them?\"\n\n\"I just can't!\" the Princess insisted.\n\nAt first, in spite of the pleadings of both parents, she would tell them\nno more, but her mother kept questioning her until at last in\nself-defense the Princess confessed that she had a true love who came to\nher in the tower every afternoon in the form of a pigeon.\n\n\"He's a prince,\" she told them, \"the son of a distant king. At present\nhe is under an enchantment that turns him into a pigeon. When the\nenchantment is broken he is coming as a prince to marry me.\"\n\n\"My poor child!\" the Queen cried. \"Think no more about this Pigeon\nPrince! The enchantment may last a hundred years and then where will you\nbe!\"\n\n\"But he is my love!\" the Princess declared, \"and if I can't have him I\nwon't have any one!\"\n\nWhen the King found that nothing they could say would move her from this\nresolution, he sighed and murmured:\n\n\"Very well, my dear. If it must be so, it must be. This afternoon when\nyour lover comes, bring him down to me that I may talk to him.\"\n\nBut that afternoon the Pigeon did not come. Nor the next afternoon\neither, nor the next, and then too late the Princess remembered his\nwarning that if she told about him he could never come back.\n\nSo now she sat in the tower-room idle and heartbroken, reproaching\nherself that she had betrayed her lover and praying God to forgive her\nand send him back to her. And the roses faded from her cheeks and her\neyes grew dull and the people about the Court began wondering why they\nhad ever thought her the most beautiful princess in the world.\n\nAt last she went to the King, her father, and said:\n\n\"As my love can no longer come back to me because I forgot my promise\nand betrayed him, I must go out into the world and hunt him. Unless I\nfind him life will not be worth the living. So do not oppose me,\nfather, but help me. Have three pairs of iron shoes made for me and\nthree iron staffs. I will wander over the wide world until these are\nworn out and then, if by that time I have not found him, I will come\nhome to you.\"\n\nSo the King had three pairs of iron shoes made for the Princess and\nthree iron staffs and she set forth on her quest. She traveled through\ntowns and cities and many kingdoms, over rough mountains and desert\nplaces, looking everywhere for her enchanted love. But nowhere could she\nfind any trace of him.\n\nAt the end of the first year she had worn out the first pair of iron\nshoes and the first iron staff. At the end of the second year she had\nworn out the second pair of iron shoes and the second iron staff. At the\nend of the third year, when she had worn out the third pair of iron\nshoes and the third staff, she returned to her father's palace looking\nthin and worn and sad.\n\n\"My poor child,\" the King said, \"I hope now you realize that the Pigeon\nPrince is gone forever. Think no more about him. Go back to your\nembroidery and when the roses begin blooming in your cheeks again we'll\nfind some young prince for you who isn't enchanted.\"\n\nBut the Princess shook her head.\n\n\"Let me try one thing more, father,\" she begged, \"and then if I don't\nfind my love I'll do as you say.\"\n\nThe King agreed to this.\n\n\"Well, then,\" the Princess said, \"build a public bath-house and have the\nheralds proclaim that the King's daughter will sit at the entrance and\nwill allow any one to bathe free of charge who will tell her the story\nof the strangest thing he has ever heard or seen.\"\n\nSo the King built the bath-house and sent out his heralds far and wide.\nMen and women from all over the world came and bathed and told the\nPrincess stories of this marvel and that, but never, alas, a word of an\nenchanted pigeon.\n\nThe days went by and the Princess grew more and more discouraged.\n\n\"Isn't it sad,\" the courtiers began whispering, \"how the Princess has\nlost her looks! Do you suppose she ever was really beautiful or did we\njust imagine it?\"\n\nAnd the neighboring kings when they heard this remarked softly among\nthemselves:\n\n\"It's just as well we didn't hurry one of our sons into a marriage with\nthis young woman!\"\n\n[Illustration: _The Princess Kissed Its Coral Beak_]\n\nNow there was a poor widow who lived near the bath-house. She had a\ndaughter, a pretty young girl, who used to sit at the window and watch\nthe Princess as people came and told her their stories.\n\n\"Mother,\" the girl said one day, \"every one in the world goes to the\nbath-house and I want to go, too!\"\n\n\"Nonsense!\" the mother said. \"What story could you tell the Princess?\"\n\n\"But everybody else goes and I don't see why I can't!\"\n\n\"Well, my dear,\" the mother promised, \"you may just as soon as you see\nor hear something strange. Talk no more about it now but go, fetch me a\npitcher of water from the town well.\"\n\nThe girl obediently took an empty pitcher and went to the town well.\nJust as she had filled the pitcher she heard some one say:\n\n\"Mercy me, I fear I'll be late!\"\n\nShe turned around and what do you think she saw? A rooster in wooden\nshoes with a basket under his wing!\n\n\"I fear I'll be late! I fear I'll be late!\" the rooster kept repeating\nas he hurried off making a funny little clatter with his wooden shoes.\n\n\"How strange!\" the girl thought to herself. \"A rooster with wooden\nshoes! I'm sure the Princess would love to hear about him! I'll follow\nhim and see what he does.\"\n\nHe went to a garden where he filled his basket with fresh\nvegetables--with onions and beans and garlic. Then he hurried home to a\nlittle house. The girl slipped in after him and hid behind the door.\n\n\"Thank goodness, I'm on time!\" the rooster murmured.\n\nHe put a big bowl on the table and filled it with milk.\n\n\"There!\" he said. \"Now I'm ready for them!\"\n\nPresently twelve beautiful pigeons came flying in by the open door.\nEleven of them dipped in the bowl of milk, their feather shirts opened,\nand out they stepped eleven handsome youths. But the Twelfth Pigeon\nperched disconsolately on the windowsill and remained a pigeon. The\neleven laughed at him and said:\n\n\"Poor fellow, your bride betrayed you, didn't she? So you have to remain\nshut up in your feather shirt while we go off and have a jolly time!\"\n\n\"Yes,\" the Twelfth Pigeon said, \"she broke her promise and now she goes\nwandering up and down the world hunting for me. If she doesn't find me I\nshall nevermore escape the feather shirt but shall have to fly about\nforever as a pigeon. But I know she will find me for she will never\nstop until she does. And when she finds me, then the enchantment will be\nbroken forever and I can marry her!\"\n\nThe eleven youths went laughing arm in arm out of the house and in a few\nmoments the solitary Pigeon flew after them. Instantly the girl slipped\nout from behind the door and hurried home with her pitcher of water.\nThen she ran quickly across to the bath-house and all out of breath she\ncried to the Princess:\n\n\"O Princess, I have such a wonderful story to tell you all about a\nrooster with wooden shoes and twelve pigeons only eleven of them are not\npigeons but handsome young men and the twelfth one has to stay in his\nfeather shirt because--\"\n\nAt mention of the enchanted pigeons, the Princess turned pale. She held\nup her hand and made the girl pause until she had her breath, then she\nquestioned her until she knew the whole story.\n\n\"It must be my love!\" the Princess thought to herself. \"Thank God I have\nfound him at last!\"\n\nThe next day at the same hour she went with the girl to the town well\nand when the rooster clattered by in his wooden shoes they followed him\nhome and slipping into the house they hid behind the door and waited.\nPresently twelve pigeons flew in. Eleven of them dipped in the milk and\ncame out handsome young men. The Twelfth sat disconsolately on the\nwindow sill and remained a pigeon. The eleven laughed at him and twitted\nhim with having had a bride that had betrayed him. Then the eleven went\naway laughing arm in arm. Before the Twelfth could fly after them, the\nPrincess ran out from behind the door and cried:\n\n\"My dear one, I have found you at last!\"\n\nThe Pigeon flew into her hands and she took him and kissed his coral\nbeak and smoothed his gleaming plumage with her lips. Then she put him\nin the milk and the feather shirt opened and her own true love stepped\nout.\n\nShe led him at once to her father and when the King found him well\ntrained in all the arts a prince should know he accepted him as his\nfuture son-in-law and presented him to the people.\n\nSo after all the Princess's mother was able to give her daughter the\ngorgeous wedding she had planned for years and years. Preparations were\nbegun at once but the Queen insisted on making such vast quantities of\nlittle round cakes and candied fruits and sweetmeats of all kinds that\nit was three whole months before the wedding actually took place. By\nthat time the roses were again blooming in the Princess's cheeks, her\neyes were brighter than before, and her long shining hair was more\ngolden than ever.\n\nAll the neighboring kings were invited to the wedding and when they saw\nthe bride they shook their heads sadly and said among themselves:\n\n\"Lost her looks indeed! What did people mean by saying such a thing?\nWhy, she's the most beautiful princess in the world! What a pity she\ndidn't marry one of our sons!\"\n\nBut when they met the Prince of her choice, they saw at once why the\nPrincess had fallen in love with him.\n\n\"Any girl would!\" they said.\n\nIt was a big wedding, as I told you before, and the only guest present\nwho was not a king or a queen or a royal personage of some sort was the\npoor girl who saw the rooster with wooden shoes in the first place. The\nQueen, of course, had wanted only royalty but the Princess declared that\nthe poor girl was her dear friend and would have to be invited. So the\nQueen, when she saw that the Princess was set on having her own way, had\nthe poor girl come to the palace before the wedding and decked her out\nin rich clothes until people were sure that she was some strange\nprincess whom the bride had met on her travels.\n\n\"My dear,\" whispered the Princess as they sat down beside each other at\nthe wedding feast, \"how beautiful you look!\"\n\n\"But I'm not as beautiful as you!\" the girl said.\n\nThe Princess laughed.\n\n\"Of course not! No one can be as beautiful as I am because I have the\nsecret of beauty!\"\n\n\"Dear Princess,\" the poor girl begged, \"won't you tell me the secret of\nbeauty?\"\n\nThe Princess leaned over and whispered something in the poor girl's ear.\n\nIt was only one word:\n\n\"Happiness!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE LITTLE LAME FOX\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of the Youngest Brother Who Found the Magic Grape-Vine and\nMarried the Golden Maiden_\n\n\n\n\nTHE LITTLE LAME FOX\n\n\nThere was once a wealthy farmer who had three sons. The oldest was a\nselfish overbearing fellow. The second was a weak chap who always did\neverything his brother suggested. The youngest whose name was Janko was\nnot as bright and clever as his brothers but he was honest and,\nmoreover, he had a good heart and in this world a good heart, you know,\nis more likely to bring its owner happiness than wicked brains.\n\n\"That booby!\" the oldest brother would say whenever he saw Janko. And\nthe second would snicker and repeat the ugly word, \"Booby!\"\n\nThe father was proud of his three sons and happy to see them grow up\nstrong and healthy.\n\n\"They're good boys,\" he'd say to himself, \"and I'm a fortunate father.\"\n\nNow there was one very curious thing about this farmer that nobody\nunderstood. One of his eyes was always laughing and the other was always\nweeping.\n\n\"What's the matter with your father's eyes?\" people used to ask the\nsons.\n\nThe sons didn't know any more than any one else. One day they were in\nthe garden discussing the matter among themselves.\n\n\"Why don't we just go and ask him?\" Janko suggested.\n\n\"If anybody is to ask him, I will!\" declared the oldest brother\nimportantly.\n\nSo he went indoors to his father and said:\n\n\"Father, people are forever talking about your eyes. Now I wish you\nwould tell me why one of them is always laughing and the other always\nweeping.\"\n\n\"My eyes, indeed!\" cried the farmer, and in a rage he snatched up a\nknife and hurled it straight at his son. The young man dodged aside and\nfled and the knife stuck in the door jamb.\n\nAll out of breath the oldest brother returned to the others but of\ncourse he was ashamed to tell them what had happened. So he said to\nthem:\n\n\"If you want to know what's the matter with father's eyes, you'll have\nto ask him yourselves.\"\n\nSo the second brother went in to the farmer and he had exactly the same\nexperience. When he came out he gave his older brother a wink and said\nto Janko:\n\n\"Now it is your turn, Booby. Father is waiting for you.\"\n\nSo Janko went in to his father and said:\n\n\"You have told my brothers why one of your eyes is always laughing and\nthe other always weeping. Now please tell me for I, too, want to know.\"\n\nIn a rage the farmer snatched up the knife again and lifted his arm to\nhurl it. But Janko stood perfectly still. Why should he turn and run\naway as though he had done something wrong? He had only asked his father\na civil question and if his father did not wish to answer it, he could\ntell him so.\n\nThe farmer when he saw that the boy was not to be frightened smiled and\nlaid the knife aside.\n\n\"Thank God,\" he said, \"I have one son who is not a coward! I have been\nwaiting these many years to have my sons ask me this very question. My\nright eye laughs because God has blessed me and made me rich and has\nallowed my three sons to grow to manhood, strong and healthy. My left\neye weeps because I can never forget a Magic Grape-Vine which once grew\nin my garden. It used to give me a bucket of wine every hour of the\ntwenty-four! One night a thief came and stole my Magic Vine and I have\nnever heard of it since. Do you wonder that my left eye weeps at the\nmemory of this wonderful Vine? Alas, the bucket of wine that used to\nflow out of it every hour of the day and night--I have never tasted its\nlike since!\"\n\n\"Father,\" Janko said, \"dry your weeping eye! I and my brothers will go\nout into the world and find your Magic Grape-Vine wherever it is\nhidden!\"\n\nWith that Janko ran out to his brothers and when they heard what he had\nto say they laughed and called him, \"Booby!\" and asked him didn't he\nsuppose that they had already planned to do just this thing. Of course\nthey hadn't, but they were so jealous and ill-natured that they couldn't\nbear the thought of his being the first to suggest anything.\n\n\"We mustn't lose any more time,\" Janko said.\n\n\"It doesn't matter how much time you lose, Mr. Booby! As for us we two\nare going to start out to-morrow at sunrise.\"\n\n\"But, brothers,\" Janko begged, \"please let me go, too!\"\n\n\"No!\" they told him shortly. \"You can stay home and look after the\nfarm!\"\n\nBut their father when he heard the discussion said, no, Janko was also\nto go as he was the bravest of them all. After that the brothers,\nbecause they didn't want their father to tell how they had been afraid\nand run away, had to agree.\n\nSo the next morning early the three of them started out, each with a\nwallet well-stocked with food.\n\n\"How are we going to get rid of the Booby?\" the second one whispered.\n\n\"Trust me!\" the oldest one whispered back with a wink.\n\nPresently they came to a crossroads where three roads branched. Now the\noldest brother knew that after a short distance two of the roads came\ntogether again. So he motioned the second brother slyly that he was to\ntake the middle road. Then he said:\n\n\"Brothers, let us part here and each take a different road. Do you\nagree?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" the other two said, \"we agree.\"\n\n\"Then suppose Janko take the left-hand road.\"\n\n\"And I'll take the middle road,\" the second cried.\n\n\"And I,\" the eldest said, \"will take the one that's left. So farewell,\nbrothers, and let us meet here in a year's time.\"\n\n\"God bless us all,\" Janko called out, \"and grant that one of us may find\nour dear father's Magic Grape-Vine.\"\n\nThe two older brothers of course met in a short time when their roads\njoined and they had a good laugh to think how they had outwitted the\nBooby.\n\n\"Time enough to look for that old Grape-Vine when we've had a little\nfun!\" the eldest said. \"Let us sit down here and eat a bite and then\npush on to the next village. There's an inn there where we can try our\nluck at cards.\"\n\nSo they sat down by the roadside, opened their wallets, and laid out\nsome bread and cheese. Just then a Little Lame Fox came limping up on\nthree feet, and whimpering and fawning it begged for something to eat.\n\n\"Get out!\" bawled the older brother and the second, picking up a handful\nof stones, threw them at the Fox.\n\nThe little animal shied and then came timidly back, again begging for\nsomething to eat.\n\n\"Let's kill it!\" cried one of the brothers.\n\nThey both jumped up and tried to strike the little creature with their\nsticks. The Fox limped off and they followed, hitting at it as they ran\nand always just missing it. It was so weak and lame that they expected\nevery minute to overtake it and so kept on chasing it until it had led\nthem pretty far into the woods. Then suddenly it disappeared and there\nwas nothing left for the brothers to do but make their way back to the\nroadside grumbling and cursing. In their absence some shepherd dogs had\nfound their open wallets and eaten all their food. So now they really\nhad something to curse about.\n\nJanko meanwhile had been trudging along steadily on the third road. At\nlast when he began to feel hungry, he sat down by the wayside and opened\nhis wallet. Instantly the same Little Lame Fox came limping up and\nwhimpered and fawned and begged for something to eat.\n\n\"You poor little creature,\" Janko said, \"are you hungry?\"\n\nHe held out his hand coaxingly and the animal gave it a timid sniff.\n\n\"Of course I'll give you something to eat,\" Janko said. \"There's enough\nfor both of us.\"\n\nWith that he divided his bread and cheese and gave the Little Fox half.\nThen they ate together and the Little Fox allowed Janko to pat her head.\n\nWhen they finished eating the Fox sat up on her haunches and said:\n\n\"Now, Janko, tell me about yourself. Who are you and where are you\ngoing?\"\n\nThe Fox seemed such a sensible little person that it didn't surprise\nJanko in the least to have her sit up and talk. Janko's brothers would\nhave said that he hadn't sense enough to be surprised. But he had a good\nheart, Janko had, and as you'll soon hear a good heart is a much better\nguide for conduct than wicked brains.\n\nJanko answered the Fox simply and truthfully. He told about his father\nand his two brothers and about his father's weeping eye and the Magic\nGrape-Vine for which he and his brothers were gone in search.\n\n\"You've been good to me,\" the Little Fox said. \"You've shared your bread\nwith me and that makes us friends. So from now on if you'll be a brother\nto me, I'll be a little sister to you.\"\n\nGoodness knows Janko's own brothers weren't very good to him, but Janko\nunderstood what the Little Fox meant and he agreed.\n\n\"Well then, brother,\" the Fox said, \"I know where that Grape-Vine is and\nI'm going to help you to get it. If you do just as I say I don't believe\nyou'll have any trouble. Now take hold of my tail and away we'll go.\"\n\nSo Janko took hold of the Little Fox's tail and sure enough away they\nwent. Whether they sailed through the air or just ran fleetly along the\nground I don't know. But I do know that they went a great distance and\nthat when they stopped Janko didn't feel in the least tired or\nbreathless.\n\n\"Now, my brother,\" the Little Fox said, \"listen carefully to what I tell\nyou. The king of this country has a wonderful garden. In the midst of it\nyour father's Grape-Vine is planted. We are close to the garden now. It\nis protected by twelve watches each of which is composed of twelve\nguards. To get to the Grape-Vine you will have to pass them all. Now as\nyou approach each watch look carefully. If the eyes of all the guards\nare open and staring straight at you, have no fear. They sleep with\ntheir eyes open and they won't see you. But if their eyes are closed,\nthen be careful for when their eyes are closed they are awake and ready\nto see you. You will find the Grape-Vine in the very center of the\ngarden. Standing near it you will see two spades, a wooden spade and a\ngolden spade. Take the wooden spade and dig up the Vine as quickly as\nyou can. Under no condition touch the golden spade. Now, Janko, do you\nunderstand?\"\n\nYes, Janko thought he understood. He slipped into the garden and the\nfirst thing he saw were twelve fierce looking guards who were staring at\nhim with great round eyes. He was much frightened until he remembered\nthat the Little Fox had said that if their eyes were open they were fast\nasleep. So he picked up courage and walked straight by them and sure\nenough they didn't see him. He passed watch after watch in the same way\nand at last reached the center of the garden. He saw the Grape-Vine at\nonce. There was no mistaking it for at that very moment it was pouring\nout wine of itself into a golden bucket. Near it were two spades, Janko\nin great excitement snatched up the first that came to his hand and\nbegan to dig. Alas, it was the golden spade and as Janko drove it into\nthe earth it sent out a loud ringing sound that instantly woke the\nguards. They came running from all directions with their eyes tightly\nclosed for now, of course, they were awake. They caught Janko and\ndragged him to the king to whom they said:\n\n\"A thief! A thief! We found him trying to steal your Magic Grape-Vine!\"\n\n\"My Magic Grape-Vine!\" thundered the king. \"Young man, what do you mean\ntrying to steal my Magic Grape-Vine?\"\n\n\"Well, you see,\" Janko answered simply, \"the Grape-Vine really belongs\nto my father. It was stolen from him years ago and ever since then his\nleft eye has wept over the loss of it. Give me the Vine, O king, for if\nyou don't I shall have to come back and try again to steal it for it\nbelongs to my father and I have sworn to get it!\"\n\nThe king frowned in thought and at last he said:\n\n\"I can't give away my precious Grape-Vine for nothing, young man, but I\ntell you what I'll do: I'll give it to you provided you get for me the\nGolden Apple-Tree that bears buds, blossoms, and golden fruit every\ntwenty-four hours.\"\n\nWith that Janko was dismissed and turned out of the garden.\n\nThe Little Fox was waiting for him and Janko had the shame of confessing\nthat he had forgotten the warning about the golden spade and had been\ncaught.\n\n\"But the king says he will give me the Grape-Vine provided I get for him\nthe Golden Apple-Tree that bears buds, blossoms, and golden fruit every\ntwenty-four hours.\"\n\n\"Well, brother,\" the Little Fox said, \"you were good to me, so I'll help\nyou again. Take hold of my tail and away we'll go.\"\n\nJanko took hold of the Little Fox's tail and away they went a greater\ndistance than before. In spite of going so quickly it took them a long\ntime but whether it was weeks or months I don't know. Whichever it was\nwhen they stopped Janko didn't feel in the least tired or breathless.\n\n\"Now, brother,\" the Little Fox said, \"here we are in another country\nclose to the king's garden where the Golden Apple-Tree grows. To reach\nit you will have to pass twenty-four watches of twelve guards each.\nTake care that you pass each guard as before when his eyes are wide open\nand staring straight at you for that means he is asleep. When you reach\nthe Golden Apple-Tree you will see two long poles on the ground--a\nwooden pole and a golden pole. Take the wooden pole and beat down some\nof the golden fruit. Don't touch the golden pole. Remember!\"\n\nSo Janko crept into the second garden and succeeded in passing all the\nguards of the twenty-four watches when their eyes were wide open and\nstaring straight at him. He reached the Golden Apple-Tree and saw at\nonce the two long poles that were lying near it on the ground. Now\nwhether because he was excited or because he forgot what the Fox\nsaid--he had a good heart, Janko had, but he was a little careless\nsometimes--I don't know. But I do know that instead of taking the wooden\npole as the Fox had told him, he took the golden pole. At the first\nstroke of the golden pole against the golden branches of the tree, the\ngolden branches sent out a loud clear whistle that woke all the sleeping\nguards. Every last one of them came running to the Apple-Tree and in no\ntime at all they had captured poor Janko and carried him to their\nmaster, the king.\n\n\"Trying to steal my Golden Apple-Tree, is he?\" roared the king in a\ngreat rage. \"What do you want with my Golden Apple-Tree, young man?\"\n\n\"Well, you see,\" Janko answered simply, \"I have to have the Golden\nApple-Tree to exchange it for the Magic Grape-Vine that really belongs\nto my father. It was stolen from him years ago and ever since then his\nleft eye has wept over the loss of it. Give me the Golden Apple-Tree, O\nking, for if you don't I shall have to come back and try again to steal\nit.\"\n\nThe king seemed impressed with Janko's words for after a moment he said:\n\n\"Janko, I can't give you the Golden Apple-Tree for nothing, but I tell\nyou what I'll do: I'll let you have it provided you get for me the\nGolden Horse that can race around the world in twenty-four hours.\"\n\nWith that Janko was dismissed and turned out of the garden.\n\nAs usual the Little Fox was waiting for him and again Janko had the\nshame of confessing that he had forgotten the warning about the golden\npole and had been caught.\n\n\"But the king says he will give me the Golden Apple-Tree provided I get\nhim the Golden Horse that can race around the world in twenty-four\nhours. I wonder, dear Little Fox, will you help me again?\"\n\n\"Yes, brother, I will help you again for you were good to me. Take hold\nof my tail and away we'll go.\"\n\nSo Janko took hold of the Little Fox's tail and away they went. How far\nthey went and how long they were gone I don't know, but it was a great\ndistance and a long time. However they arrived without feeling in the\nleast tired or breathless.\n\n\"Now, brother,\" the Little Fox said, \"this time listen carefully to what\nI tell you. Here we are in another kingdom close to the king's own\nstable where the Golden Horse is guarded by thirty-six watches of twelve\nguards each. When night comes you must slip into the stable and pass all\nthose guards when they are asleep with their eyes wide open and staring\nstraight at you. When you reach the Golden Horse you will see hanging\nbeside him a golden bridle and a common bridle made of hempen rope. Slip\nthe hempen bridle over the Horse's head and lead him quietly out of the\nstable. But mind you don't touch the golden bridle! This time don't\nforget!\"\n\nJanko promised faithfully to remember what the Little Fox said and when\nnight came he crept into the stable and cautiously made his way through\nthe sleeping guards. He reached at last the stall of the Golden Horse.\nIt was the most beautiful horse in the world and the gleam of its\nshining flanks was like sunshine in the dark stable.\n\nJanko stroked its golden mane and whispered softly into its ear. The\nhorse responded to his touch and rubbed its muzzle against his shoulder.\n\nJanko reached over to take the hempen bridle and then he paused. \"It\nwould be an outrage,\" he thought to himself, \"to put a common rope on\nthis glorious creature!\"\n\nJust think of it! For the third time Janko forgot the Little Fox's\nwarning! I have no excuse to make for him. I don't see how he could have\nforgotten a third time! But he did. He took the golden bridle instead of\nthe hempen one and put it over the head of the Golden Horse. The Horse\nneighed and instantly all the sleeping guards awoke and came running to\nthe stall. They caught Janko, of course, and when morning broke carried\nhim to their master, the king.\n\nHe questioned Janko as the others had done and Janko answered him\nsimply:\n\n\"You see I have to have the Golden Horse, O king, to exchange it for the\nGolden Apple-Tree. And I have to have the Golden Apple-Tree to exchange\nit for the Magic Grape-Vine that really belongs to my father. It was\nstolen from him years ago and ever since then his left eye has wept over\nthe loss of it. Give me the Golden Horse, O king, for if you don't give\nhim to me I shall have to come back and try again to steal him.\"\n\n\"But, Janko,\" the king said, \"I can't give you the Golden Horse for\nnothing! But I tell you what I'll do: I will give him to you provided\nyou get for me the Golden Maiden who has never seen the sun.\"\n\nWith that Janko was dismissed and led out of the stable.\n\nJanko really was awfully ashamed this time when he had again to confess\nto the Little Fox that he had forgotten her warning and had touched the\ngolden bridle.\n\n\"Janko! Janko!\" the Little Fox said. \"Where are your wits! Now what\nshall we do?\"\n\nThen Janko told the Little Fox of the king's offer:\n\n\"He will give me the Golden Horse provided I get for him the Golden\nMaiden who has never seen the sun. Dear Little Fox, will you help me\nthis one time more? I know I am very stupid but I promise you faithfully\nthat this time I will not forget.\"\n\n\"Of course, brother,\" the Little Fox said, \"I'll help you again. But\nthis will have to be the last time. If you forget this time I won't be\nable to help you any more. Take hold of my tail and away we'll go.\"\n\nSo for the fourth time Janko took hold of the Little Fox's tail and away\nthey went. They went and they went--I can't tell you how far! But they\nweren't tired when they arrived, they weren't even breathless.\n\n\"Now, brother,\" the Little Fox said, \"listen carefully to what I tell\nyou. Here we are in another kingdom close to a great cavern where for\nsixteen years the Golden Maiden has been kept a prisoner under the\nenchantment of her wicked mother and never allowed to see the golden\nlight of the sun. There are forty-eight chambers in the cavern and each\nchamber is guarded by a watch of twelve guards. Steal softly through\neach chamber when the eyes of all the guards are wide open and staring\nstraight at you. In the last chamber of all you will find the Golden\nMaiden playing in her Golden Cradle. Over the Cradle stands a fearful\nghost who will cry out to you to go away and threaten to kill you. But\ndon't be afraid. It is only an empty ghost which the wicked mother has\nplaced there to frighten men off from rescuing the Golden Maiden. Take\nthe Golden Maiden by the hand, put the Golden Cradle on your shoulder,\nand hurry back to me. But one thing: As you leave each chamber be sure\nto lock the door after you so that the guards when they wake cannot\nfollow you.\"\n\nJanko crept into the cavern and cautiously made his way from chamber to\nchamber through the wide-eyed guards. In the forty-eighth chamber he\nfound the Golden Maiden playing in her Golden Cradle. He ran to take her\nwhen a horrible creature rose above the Cradle and in hollow tones\ncried: \"Back! Back! Back!\" For a moment Janko was frightened, then he\nremembered that the awful creature was only an empty ghost. So he went\nboldly up to the Golden Cradle and sure enough the ghost faded away.\n\n\"You have come to rescue me, haven't you?\" the Golden Maiden cried.\n\nShe gave Janko her hand and he helped her to her feet. Then he put the\nGolden Cradle on his shoulder and together they hurried out from chamber\nto chamber. And I am happy to tell you that this time Janko remembered\nthe Little Fox's warning and locked the door of every chamber as they\nleft it. So they reached the upper world safely and found the Little Fox\nwaiting for them.\n\n\"There's no time to lose,\" the Little Fox said. \"Put the Cradle across\nmy back, Janko, and take hold of my tail with one hand and give your\nother hand to the Golden Maiden and away we'll go.\"\n\nJanko did as the Little Fox said and away they all three went.\n\nWhen they reached the stable of the Golden Horse, the Little Fox said:\n\n\"It doesn't seem right to give the Golden Maiden to the king of the\nGolden Horse unless she wants us to, does it?\"\n\nThe Golden Maiden at once begged them to keep her.\n\n\"Don't give me to the king of the Golden Horse!\" she said. \"I want to\nstay with Janko who has rescued me!\"\n\n\"But unless I give up the Golden Maiden,\" Janko asked, \"how can I get\nthe Golden Horse?\"\n\n\"Perhaps I can help you,\" the Little Fox said. \"Perhaps I can enchant\nmyself into looking like the Golden Maiden.\"\n\nWith that the Little Fox leaped up in the air, turned this way and that,\nand lo! you might have thought her the Golden Maiden except that her\neyes were still fox's eyes.\n\n\"Now leave the Maiden outside here hidden in her Golden Cradle and take\nme in to the master of the stable. Exchange me for the Golden Horse and\nmake off at once. Then pick up the Golden Maiden in her Golden Cradle\nand ride away and soon I'll join you.\"\n\nJanko did this very thing. He took in the fox maiden and exchanged her\nfor the Golden Horse and instantly rode off as the Little Fox had told\nhim.\n\nThe king of the stable at once called all his courtiers together and\nshowed them the fox maiden.\n\n\"See,\" he said, \"this is the Golden Maiden who has never seen the sun!\nShe is the most beautiful maiden in the world and she now belongs to\nme!\"\n\nThe courtiers looked at her and admired her, but one of them a little\nkeener than the others said:\n\n\"Yes, she's very beautiful and all that but look at her eyes. They don't\nlook like maiden's eyes but like fox's eyes!\"\n\nInstantly at the word _fox_ the false maiden turned to a fox and went\nscampering off.\n\n\"See what you've done!\" cried the king in a fury. \"You have changed my\nGolden Maiden into a fox with your nonsense! You shall pay for this with\nyour life!\" And he had him executed at once.\n\nThe Little Fox meantime had caught up with Janko and the Golden Maiden\nand the Golden Horse. As they neared the garden of the king of the\nGolden Apple-Tree the Fox said:\n\n\"It would be a pity to give away the Golden Horse. Rightly it belongs to\nthe Golden Maiden and was taken from her by her wicked mother.\"\n\n\"Don't give my Golden Horse away!\" the Golden Maiden begged.\n\n\"But how else can I get the Golden Apple-Tree?\" Janko asked.\n\n\"Perhaps I can help you,\" the Little Fox said. \"Perhaps I can enchant\nmyself into looking like the Golden Horse.\"\n\nWith that the Little Fox leaped up in the air, turned this way and that,\nand lo! you might have thought her the Golden Horse except that her tail\nwas still a fox's tail.\n\nWhen they reached the garden of the Golden Apple-Tree, Janko left the\nGolden Horse and the Golden Maiden outside and took the fox horse in to\nthe king.\n\nThe king was delighted and at once had his servants deliver to Janko the\nGolden Apple-Tree.\n\nWhen Janko was safely gone, the king called all his courtiers together\nand showed them the fox horse.\n\n\"See my Golden Horse!\" he said. \"Isn't it the most beautiful horse in\nthe world!\"\n\n\"It is! It is!\" they all told him.\n\nBut one courtier, a little keener than the rest, remarked:\n\n\"What a curious tail for a horse to have! It is like a fox's tail!\"\n\nAt the word _fox_ the false horse changed back into a fox and went\nscampering off.\n\n\"See what you've done with your nonsense!\" cried the king. \"You have\nlost me my Golden Horse and now you shall lose your own life!\" And he\nordered the courtier to be executed at once.\n\nThe Fox soon caught up with the real Golden Horse and with Janko and the\nGolden Maiden who were holding in their arms the Golden Cradle and the\nGolden Apple-Tree.\n\n\"It will never do to give up the Golden Apple-Tree,\" the Fox said, \"for\nit, too, rightly belongs to the Golden Maiden. I'll have to see again if\nI can help you.\"\n\nSo when they neared the garden of the Magic Grape-Vine, the Little Fox\nleaped in the air, turned this way; and that, and lo! you might have\nthought her the Golden Apple-Tree except that her fruit instead of being\nround was long and pointed like a fox's head.\n\n[Illustration: _The Golden Maiden, the Farmer and the Empty Ghost_]\n\nJanko gave the king the fox tree and received in return the Magic\nGrape-Vine that really belonged to his father and not to the king at\nall. He hurried back to the Golden Maiden who was waiting for him with\nthe Golden Horse and the Golden Apple-Tree and the Golden Cradle and off\nthey all went.\n\nThe king was delighted with his fox tree and called his courtiers to\ncome and admire it.\n\n\"Beautiful! Beautiful!\" they all said, and one of them examining the\nfruit carefully remarked:\n\n\"But see these apples! They are not round like apples but long and\npointed like a fox's head!\"\n\nHe had no sooner said the word _fox_ than the tree turned into a fox and\nwent scampering off.\n\n\"See what you've done with your nonsense!\" cried the king. \"You have\nlost me my Golden Apple-Tree and now I shall lose you your head!\" And he\nordered the courtier to be executed at once.\n\nWhen the Fox caught up with the Golden Horse, she said to Janko:\n\n\"Now, my brother, it is time for us to part. You have the Magic\nGrape-Vine and soon your father's left eye will no longer weep. Besides,\nyou are carrying home the Golden Maiden on her own Golden Horse and with\nher Golden Apple-Tree and her Golden Cradle. God has blessed you in your\nundertaking and will continue to bless you so long as you are good and\nkind. Farewell now and think sometimes of your sister, the Little Lame\nFox.\"\n\nJanko wept at thought of parting with the Little Fox and the Little Fox\npromised him that she would help him again if ever he needed her. Then\nshe turned and trotted off into the woods and Janko rode homewards\nwithout her.\n\nWhen he reached the crossroads where he had parted from his brothers\njust one year before he came upon a crowd of angry farmers belaboring\ntwo men who had been robbing their barns. Janko found that the two men\nwere his own brothers who since he had seen them had fallen into bad\ncompany, lost all their money at cards, and had finally taken to\nthieving. Janko paid the farmers for the damage his brothers had done\nthem and took his brothers home with him.\n\nYou can imagine the old farmer's happiness at seeing all three of his\nsons after a whole year's absence. It was even greater than his delight\nat getting back his Magic Grape-Vine. But that doesn't mean that he\nwasn't delighted to have back the Grape-Vine. At the first cup of wine\nthat the Vine poured him, his left eye ceased weeping and it was never\nknown to weep again.\n\nHe was delighted, too, at having the Golden Maiden in the house and\npleased when people came from far and near to see the Maiden's Golden\nHorse and Golden Apple-Tree and Golden Cradle. He even began to hope\nthat she might marry one of his sons before some prince came along and\nsnatched her away. He thought the Maiden would make a wonderful bride\nfor the oldest. Unfortunately Janko had not told him what reprobates the\ntwo older sons were, and the older brothers themselves had given their\nfather to understand that it was really they who had found the Magic\nGrape-Vine and rescued the Golden Maiden. You see instead of being\ngrateful to Janko for having saved their necks from the angry farmers,\nthey hated him worse than ever.\n\n\"That Booby!\" the older brother growled. \"Just because he took the\nleft-hand road and found the Magic Grape-Vine he thinks himself so much\nbetter than us! It was just luck--that's all it was! Any one who took\nthe left-hand road could have found the old Grape-Vine!\"\n\n\"And do you notice the way the Golden Maiden always smiles on him?\" the\nother said. \"The first thing we know she'll be marrying him and giving\nhim the Golden Horse and the Golden Apple-Tree and the Golden Cradle!\nThen where will we be?\"\n\n\"Brother,\" whispered the first, \"let us make away with him!\"\n\nSo they plotted together and they asked Janko to go hunting with them\nthe next day. Suspecting nothing Janko went. When they came to a deep\nwell in the woods they asked Janko to reach them a cup of water. As he\nstooped over into the well they pushed him all the way in and drowned\nhim. That's the kind of brothers they were! Then they went home and\npretended to be surprised that Janko hadn't come home before them.\n\nHe didn't come that night or the next day either, and the Golden Maiden\ngrew sad and quiet, the Magic Grape-Vine no longer poured out its\nprecious wine every hour, the Golden Apple-Tree stopped putting forth\nits buds and blossoms and golden fruit, and the Golden Horse languished\nand drooped its lovely head.\n\n\"Everything goes wrong when Janko isn't here!\" the farmer said. \"Where\ncan he be?\"\n\nOn the third day the Golden Maiden suddenly began to laugh and sing, the\nMagic Grape-Vine again poured forth a bucket of precious wine every\nhour, the Golden Apple-Tree put out buds and blossoms and golden fruit,\nand the Golden Horse lifted its beautiful head and neighed loud and\nhappily. And do you know why? Because the Little Lame Fox had just\nrescued Janko and brought him back to life! She pulled him out of the\nwell, and rolled him about on the ground, and worked over him until all\nthe water was emptied from his lungs and he was able to breathe again.\n\nThen as he opened his eyes the Little Fox said:\n\n\"I told you, brother, I'd come again if you needed my help. I was just\nin time for a little longer and I could never have brought you back to\nlife. And now, brother, the enchantment that held me is broken and I\nneed no longer go about as a Little Lame Fox. My mother was a wicked\nwitch and she enchanted me because she was angry with me for saving a\nman whom she wanted to kill. So she turned me into a little fox and she\nsaid I should have to remain a fox forever unless I succeeded in\nbringing back to life my benefactor. You are my benefactor, Janko, for\nyou shared your bread and cheese with me the first time we met, and now\nI have been able to bring you back to life.\"\n\nAs she spoke she changed into a lovely maiden.\n\n\"Good-by, Janko,\" she said. \"Go home now and tell your father how your\nevil brothers have treated you. Unless you do this they will plot\nagainst the Golden Maiden and you may not be able to protect her.\"\n\nSo Janko and the maiden kissed each other as a brother and sister might\nand the maiden went her way and Janko returned to his father's house.\n\nThe Golden Maiden and the old farmer were not in the least surprised to\nsee him for things were so happy again that they just knew it must be\nbecause Janko was coming back. But his two brothers when they caught\nsight of him alive and well were so frightened that they took to their\nheels and ran off as fast as they could go and what's more they've never\nshown themselves since. And good riddance, too, I say, for they were\nwicked evil fellows and would only have injured Janko further if they\ncould.\n\nWhen Janko told his father all the wicked things they had done, the old\nfarmer could scarcely believe his ears.\n\n\"And to think,\" he said, \"I had been hoping the Golden Maiden would\nmarry one of them! Mercy me! Mercy me!\"\n\n\"But, father,\" the Golden Maiden said--she called him _father_ now and\nit pleased him mightily; \"father, I should rather marry Janko!\"\n\n\"Marry Janko!\" the farmer cried. \"Why, my dear, Janko is a stupid lad,\nnot nearly so clever as his two brothers!\"\n\n\"I don't care if he is stupid. He's got a good heart and that's more\nthan the other two have. And besides that he's got a brave heart for he\nrescued me from the dark cavern and he faced the awful ghost that stood\nover my Golden Cradle. Why, father, I'd rather marry Janko than any\nprince in the world!\"\n\nYou can imagine Janko's feelings when he heard this!\n\n\"I'd feel like a prince if you did marry me, dear Golden One!\" he cried.\n\nWell, she did marry him, and sure enough he did feel like a prince. What\nprince, I'd like to know, had a lovelier bride? None! And was there any\nprince in the world whose bride brought him greater riches than the\nGolden Apple-Tree, the Golden Horse, and Golden Cradle? No, not one! And\nfurthermore the farmer promised that, when he died, he would leave him\nthe Magic Grape-Vine.\n\nSo Janko lived happy and prosperous. And it all came about through his\nhaving a good honest heart.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nTHE ENCHANTED PEAFOWL\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of the Golden Apples, the Wicked Dragon, and the Magic\nHorse_\n\n\n\n\nTHE ENCHANTED PEAFOWL\n\n\n_Have you ever heard the story of the Peafowl who became a Queen and of\nthe Tsar's Youngest Son who married her? Well, here it is:_\n\nThere was once a Tsar who took great delight in his garden. Every\nmorning you could see him bending over his flowers or picking the fruit\nof his favorite tree. This was an apple-tree that had the magic property\nof bearing buds, blossoms, and golden fruit every twenty-four hours. It\nwas known as the golden apple-tree. In the morning the first thing when\nhe woke up the Tsar would look out his bedroom window to see that all\nwas well with his beloved tree.\n\nOne morning when as usual he looked out he was grieved to see that the\ntree had been stripped of all the golden fruit which had ripened during\nthe night.\n\n\"Who has stolen my golden apples?\" he cried.\n\nThe palace guards looked everywhere for some trace of the thief but\nfound nothing.\n\nThe next morning the same thing had happened and every morning\nthereafter when the Tsar looked out of his bedroom window he saw that\nthe tree had again been stripped of its golden fruit.\n\nHe called his three sons to him and said:\n\n\"Is it seemly that a Tsar who has three able-bodied sons should be\nrobbed night after night of his golden apples? Are you willing that this\nshould happen and you do nothing about it?\"\n\nThe eldest son who was a braggart said:\n\n\"My father, you need say no more. I myself will watch to-night and when\nthe thief appears I will overpower him and bring him to you.\"\n\nSo the eldest son watched that night, standing on guard under the\napple-tree and leaning against its trunk.\n\nAs midnight approached his eyes grew heavy and he fell asleep. While he\nslept the golden apples ripened and were stolen and the next morning, as\nusual, the branches were bare.\n\nThe second son who was a crafty youth laughed at his brother and said:\n\n\"To-night I will watch. I will pretend to be asleep and when the thief\nappears I will jump upon him and overpower him.\"\n\nSo when night came the second son went on guard under the tree and in\norder to deceive the thief he lay down on the ground and closed his\neyes. At first he stayed wide awake but as the hours dragged by he grew\ntired and then, because he was in such a comfortable position, he too\nfell soundly asleep. Midnight came and the apples ripened but the next\nmorning, when the second prince awoke, the tree had again been stripped\nof its golden fruit.\n\nThe Tsar's Youngest Son now said:\n\n\"Father, let me go on guard to-night.\"\n\nHis brothers jeered and the Tsar shook his head.\n\n\"Nay, nay, my boy, why should you succeed where your older brothers have\nfailed? It is God's will that my golden apples should be stolen and I\nmust submit.\"\n\nBut the Youngest Son insisted that he, too, be given a chance to capture\nthe thief and at last the Tsar consented.\n\n\"I will sleep soundly the first part of the night,\" the Youngest Prince\nthought to himself, \"and with God's help wake up at midnight.\"\n\nAs soon as it was dark he had his bed carried outdoors and placed under\nthe apple-tree. Then after commending his undertaking to God he lay down\nand fell soundly to sleep. Just before midnight he awoke. The apples\nhad ripened and were shining among the leaves like golden lanterns.\n\nOn the stroke of midnight there was a whirr of wings and nine beautiful\npeafowl came flying down from the sky. Eight of them settled on the\nbranches of the apple-tree and began eating the golden fruit. The ninth\nalighted beside the Young Prince and as she touched the ground changed\ninto a lovely maiden.\n\nShe was so beautiful and gentle that the Young Prince fell madly in love\nwith her and at once began wooing her with kisses and caresses. She\nresponded to his love and they spent the night together in great\nhappiness.\n\nAt the first streak of dawn she jumped up, saying:\n\n\"My dear one, I must leave you now!\"\n\n\"But you will come again, won't you?\" the Prince asked.\n\n\"Yes,\" she promised him. \"To-night.\"\n\nSuddenly the Prince remembered the golden apples. The peafowl in the\ntree were about to eat the last of them.\n\n\"Can't you make them leave just one apple for my father?\" the Prince\nbegged.\n\nThe maiden spoke to the birds and they flew down with two of the golden\napples, one for the Tsar and one for the Prince himself.\n\nThen the maiden lifted her arms above her head, changed into a peafowl,\nand with the other eight flew off into the morning sky.\n\nThe Prince carried the two apples to his father and the Tsar was so\ndelighted that he forgot to ask the Prince the particulars of his\nadventure.\n\nThe next night the Prince again slept under the apple-tree and awoke\njust before midnight to hear the whirr of wings and see the nine peafowl\ncome flying down from the sky. Eight of them settled on the branches of\nthe apple-tree and the ninth, as before, alighted beside him and as she\ntouched the earth changed into the lovely maiden of his heart. Again\nthey passed the night together in great happiness and in the early dawn\nbefore she flew away the maiden gave him the last two of the golden\napples.\n\nThis went on night after night until the Prince's two elder brothers\nwere mad with jealousy and consumed with curiosity to know what happened\nevery night under the apple-tree. At last they went to an evil old woman\nand bribed her to spy on the Young Prince.\n\n\"Find out what happens every night at the apple-tree,\" they told her,\n\"and we will reward you richly.\"\n\nSo the evil old woman hid herself near the apple-tree and that night\nwhen the prince fell asleep she crept under his bed. Midnight came and\nshe heard the whirr of wings and presently she saw the white feet of a\nlovely maiden touch the ground and she heard the prince say: \"My love,\nis it you?\"\n\nThen as the Prince and the maiden began kissing each other and\nexchanging vows of love very slowly and cautiously she reached up her\nhand from under the bed and groped around until she felt the maiden's\nhair. Then with a scissors she snipped off a lock.\n\n\"Oh!\" the maiden cried in terror. She jumped up, lifted her arms above\nher head, changed into a peafowl, and without another word flew off with\nthe other eight and vanished in the sky.\n\nIn a fury the Prince searched about to see what had frightened his loved\none. He found the old woman under the bed and dragging her out by the\nhair he struck her dead with his sword. And good riddance it was, too,\nfor she was an evil old thing and only caused mischief in the world.\n\nBut putting the evil old woman out of the way did not, alas, bring back\nthe lovely maiden. The Prince waited for her the next night and the next\nand many following nights but she nevermore returned.\n\nThe magic apple-tree of course was no longer robbed of its golden fruit,\nso the Tsar was happy once again and never tired of praising the valor\nof his youngest son. But as for the prince, in spite of his father's\npraise he grew sadder and sadder.\n\nFinally he went to the Tsar and said:\n\n\"Father, I have lost the maiden whom I love and life without her is not\nworth the living. Unless I go out in the world and find her I shall\ndie.\"\n\nThe Tsar tried to dissuade him but when he could not he mounted him on a\nfine horse, gave him a serving man to accompany him, and sent him off\nwith his blessing.\n\nThe Prince and his man wandered hither and thither over the world\ninquiring everywhere for news of nine peafowl one of whom was a lovely\nmaiden. They came at last to a lake on the shore of which lived an ugly\nold woman with an only daughter.\n\n\"Nine peafowl,\" she repeated, \"and one of them a lovely maiden! You must\nmean the nine sisters, the enchanted princesses, who fly about as\npeafowl. They come here every morning to bathe in the lake. What can you\nwant with them?\"\n\nThe Prince told the old woman that one of them was his love and that\nunless he married her he would die.\n\n\"Die, indeed!\" scoffed the old woman. \"That's no way for a handsome\nyoung man to talk! I'll tell you what you ought to do: give up thought\nof this peafowl princess and marry my daughter. Then I'll make you heir\nto all my riches.\"\n\nShe called out her daughter who was as ugly as herself and cross and\nill-natured in the bargain. Just one look at her and the Prince said\nfirmly:\n\n\"No! If I can't marry my own dear love I won't marry any one!\"\n\n\"Very well!\" said the old woman shortly.\n\nWhen the Prince's back was turned she called the serving man aside and\nwhispered:\n\n\"Will you do what I tell you if I pay you well?\"\n\nThe serving man who was a mean greedy fellow nodded his head and the old\nwoman handed him a small bellows.\n\n\"Hide this in your shirt,\" she told him, \"and don't let your master see\nit. Then to-morrow morning when you go down to the lake with him to see\nthe nine peafowl slip it out and blow it on the back of his neck. Do\nthis and I'll give you a golden ducat.\"\n\nThe serving man took the bellows and did as the old woman directed. The\nnext morning down at the lake just as the nine peafowl came flying into\nsight he crept up behind the Prince and blew the bellows on the back of\nhis neck. Instantly sleep overcame the Prince. His eyes closed, his head\ndrooped, and the reins fell from his hands.\n\nEight of the peafowl alighted on the water's edge, changed into lovely\nmaidens and went bathing in the lake, but the ninth flew straight down\nto the Prince, fluttered her wings in his face and uttering sad cries\ntried hard to arouse him.\n\nThe eight finished their baths, changed back into birds, and calling\ntheir sister they all flew off together. Then and not till then did the\nPrince awaken.\n\n\"Ah!\" he cried, \"how could I have fallen asleep just when the peafowl\nappeared? Where are they now? Are they gone?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" his man told him, \"they're gone. Eight of them changed into\nlovely maidens and went bathing in the lake but the ninth fluttered\nabout your head and tried in every way to arouse you. I tried to arouse\nyou, too, but you kept on sleeping.\"\n\n\"Strange!\" thought the Prince. \"How could I have fallen asleep at such a\ntime? I'll have to try again to-morrow morning.\"\n\nThe next morning the same thing happened. The treacherous serving man\nagain blew the bellows on the back of the Prince's neck and instantly\nthe Prince sank into a deep sleep from which the ninth peafowl was\nunable to arouse him.\n\nAs she rose to join her sisters she said to the serving man:\n\n\"When your master awakens tell him that to-morrow is the last day we\nshall come here to bathe in the lake.\"\n\nThe peafowl were no sooner gone than the Prince rubbed his eyes and\nlooked about.\n\n\"What! Where are they? Have I been asleep again?\"\n\nThe serving man pretended to be deeply grieved.\n\n\"I tried hard to awaken you, master, but I couldn't. The ninth peafowl\nas she flew away said to tell you that to-morrow is the last day they'll\ncome to the lake.\"\n\nThe next day as the Prince waited for the appearance of the nine peafowl\nhe galloped madly along the shore of the lake hoping in this way to ward\noff the strange sleep. But the moment the nine peafowl appeared in the\nsky he was so delighted that he drew rein and the treacherous serving\nman was able to slip up behind him and blow the magic bellows on his\nneck. So again he slept soundly while the ninth peafowl fluttered about\nhis head and tried vainly to arouse him.\n\nAs she was flying away she said to the serving man:\n\n\"Tell your master that now he will never find me unless he strikes off\nthe head from the nail.\"\n\nWhen the Prince awoke the serving man delivered this message.\n\n\"What can she mean?\" the Prince said.\n\nHe looked hard at the serving man and something in the fellow's\nappearance made him suspect treachery.\n\n\"You know more than you're telling me!\" the Prince cried, and taking the\ncowardly fellow by the throat he shook him and choked him until he had\ngot the truth out of him.\n\n\"Ha!\" cried the Prince. \"Now I understand! You are the nail of which my\ndear love warns me!\"\n\nThe fellow whined and begged for mercy but the Prince with one blow of\nhis sword struck off his head. Then, leaving the body where it fell for\nthe old woman to bury, he mounted his horse and again set forth on his\nquest.\n\nEverywhere he went he made inquiries about the nine enchanted peafowl\nand everywhere people shook their heads and said they had never heard of\nthem. At last high up in a wild mountain he found an old hermit who\nknew all about them.\n\n\"Ah,\" he said, \"you mean the nine princesses. Eight of them have broken\nthe enchantment that held them and are now happily married. The ninth\nawaits you. She is living in the royal palace of a beautiful city that\nlies three days' journey to the north of this mountain. When you find\nher, if you do just as she says she, too, will soon be free of all\nenchantment. Then she will be made queen.\"\n\nThe Prince thanked the hermit and rode on. After three days he came to\nthe city of which the hermit had told him. He made his way to the palace\nand into the Princess's presence. Sure enough the Princess was his own\ndear love. She received him with joy, promised soon to marry him, and\ngave over to him the keys of the palace.\n\n\"You shall now be master here,\" she told him, \"to go where you like and\ndo as you like. There is only one thing that you must not do, only one\nplace where you must not go. Under the palace are twelve cellars. Here\nare the keys to them all. Go into eleven of them whenever you will but\nyou must never open the door of the twelfth one. If you do a heavy\nmisfortune may fall upon both of us.\"\n\nOne day while the Princess was walking in the garden, the young Prince\nthought he would go through the cellars. So, taking the keys, he\nunlocked the cellars one after another until he had seen eleven of them.\nThen he stood before the door of the twelfth wondering why the Princess\nhad warned him not to open it.\n\n\"I'll open it just a little,\" he thought to himself. \"If there's\nsomething inside that tries to get out, I'll close it quickly.\"\n\nSo he took the twelfth key, unlocked the twelfth door, and peeped inside\nthe twelfth cellar. It was empty except for one huge cask with an open\nbunghole.\n\n\"I don't see anything in here to be afraid of,\" he said.\n\nJust then he heard a groan from inside the cask and a voice called out\nin a begging, whining tone:\n\n\"A cup of water, brother! A cup of water! I am dying of thirst!\"\n\nNow the Prince thought to himself that it was a terrible thing for any\nliving creature to be dying of thirst. So he hurried out, got a cup of\nwater, and poured it into the open bunghole. Instantly one of the three\niron hoops that bound the cask burst asunder and the voice inside the\ncask said:\n\n\"Thank you, brother! Thank you! Now give me another cup! I am dying of\nthirst!\"\n\nSo the Prince poured in a second cup and the second iron hoop snapped\napart and when the voice still begged for more water he poured in a\nthird cup. The third hoop broke, the staves of the cask fell in, and a\nhorrid dragon sprang out. Before the Prince could move, he had flown\nthrough the door of the twelfth cellar into the eleventh cellar, then\ninto the tenth cellar, the ninth cellar, the eight cellar, the seventh\ncellar, the sixth, the fifth, the fourth, the third, the second, the\nfirst, and so out into the garden. The Prince reached the garden just in\ntime to see the monster overpower the Princess.\n\n\"Alas, my dear one, what have you done?\" cried the poor Princess as the\ndragon carried her off. \"The enchantment would soon have been broken and\nI could have married you if only you had not gone into the twelfth\ncellar!\"\n\nHeartbroken at what had happened, the Prince mounted his horse and\nstarted off in pursuit of the dragon.\n\n\"I must do what I can to rescue my loved one,\" he said, \"even if it\ncosts me my life.\"\n\nHe rode many days until he came to the castle of the dragon. The dragon\nwas out and the Princess received him with tears of joy.\n\n\"Come,\" he said to her, \"let us escape before the dragon returns.\"\n\nThe Princess sighed and shook her head.\n\n\"How, my loved one, can we escape? The dragon rides a magic horse and\nhowever fast we go he will be able to overtake us.\"\n\nBut the Prince insisted that they make the attempt. So she mounted with\nhim and off they went.\n\nWhen the dragon arrived home and found her gone, he laughed a brutal\nlaugh and said to his horse:\n\n\"I suppose that foolish young Prince has been here and is trying to\ncarry her off. Shall we start after them now or wait till we've had our\nsupper?\"\n\n\"We might as well eat,\" the horse said, \"for we'll overtake them\nanyway.\"\n\nSo they both ate and then the dragon mounted the magic horse and in no\ntime at all they had overtaken the fugitives.\n\n\"I ought to tear you to pieces,\" the dragon said to the Prince, \"but I\nwon't this time because you gave me a cup of water. However, I warn you\nnot to try this foolishness again!\"\n\nWith that he clutched the poor weeping Princess in his scaly arms and\ncarried her back to the castle.\n\nWhat was the Prince to do now? He tried to plan some other way of\nrescuing the Princess but he could think of none. In spite of the\ndragon's threat he went back the next day and tried the same thing\nagain. Again the dragon overtook him and snatched back the Princess.\n\n\"I have spared you one time,\" he said to the Prince, \"and I will spare\nyou this one time more for the sake of the water you gave me. But I warn\nyou if you come again I will tear you to pieces.\"\n\nBut what man worthy the name will accept such a warning when the safety\nand happiness of his loved one is concerned? The next day while the\ndragon was out the Prince again returned to the castle.\n\n\"It is plain,\" he said to the Princess, \"that we can never escape until\nwe, too, get a magic horse. We must find out where the dragon got his.\nTo-night when he comes home, speak him fair and caress his head and when\nhe is in fine humor ask him about his horse--what kind of a horse it is\nand where he got it. Then I will come back to-morrow at this same hour\nand you can tell me.\"\n\nSo that night when the dragon came home the Princess allowed him to put\nhis head in her lap and she scratched him softly behind the ears and\npetted him until he was purring like a giant cat.\n\n\"Urrh! Urrh! Urrh!\" purred the dragon. \"How happy we are here, just you\nand I! What a foolish young man that Prince of yours is to think I'd let\nhim carry you off! Urrh! Urrh! Urrh!\"\n\n\"Yes,\" the Princess agreed, \"he is foolish or he would never suppose his\nhorse could outrace yours.\"\n\n\"Urrh! Urrh!\" the dragon purred. \"You're right! He seems to think my\nhorse is an ordinary horse. Why, I got my horse from the Old Woman of\nthe Mountain and the only other horse in the world that can outstrip him\nis another horse that the Old Woman still has. The Prince would have a\nhard time getting him!\"\n\nThe Princess still scratching the dragon behind his ears, just where he\nloved it most, asked softly:\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"Urrh! Urrh! Urrh! Because the Old Woman will never give that horse away\nuntil a man comes along who is able to guard for three nights in\nsuccession the Old Woman's mare and foal. Any one who attempts this and\nfails she kills. But even if a man were to succeed he would never get\nthe right horse for the old witch would palm off another on him. Urrh!\nUrrh! Urrh! Oh, that feels good, my dear!\"\n\n\"How would she do that?\" the Princess asked.\n\n\"Urrh! Urrh! Urrh! You see she says to every man who undertakes to guard\nthe mare: 'If you succeed you may have any horse in my stable.' Then she\nshows him twelve beautiful stallions with shiny coats, but she doesn't\nshow him a scrawny miserable looking beast that lies neglected on the\ndung heap. Yet this is the magic horse and brother to mine.\"\n\nNow the Princess knew all she needed to know and the next day when the\nPrince came she told him what the dragon had said. So the Prince at once\nset out to find the Old Woman of the Mountain.\n\nHe traveled three days over waste places and through strange lands. On\nthe first day as he was riding along the shores of a lake he heard a\nlittle voice crying out:\n\n\"Help me, brother, help me and--who knows?--some day I may help you!\"\n\nThe Prince looked down and saw a fish that was floundering on the sand.\nHe dismounted to get the fish and throw it back into the water.\n\n\"Take one of my scales,\" the fish said. \"Then if ever you need my help\njust rub the scale.\"\n\nSo the Prince, before he threw the fish into the lake, scraped off a\nscale and tied it in a corner of his handkerchief. Then he rode on.\n\nThe second day a fox that had been caught in a trap called out to him:\n\n\"Help me, brother, help me and--who knows?--some day I may help you!\"\n\nThe Prince opened the trap and the fox, before it limped away, gave the\nPrince one of its hairs and said:\n\n\"If ever you need me, rub this hair.\"\n\nThe third day he met a raven that had fallen on a thorn and was pinned\nto the ground.\n\n\"Help me, brother, help me!\" the raven begged, \"and--who knows?--some\nday I may help you!\"\n\nThe Prince lifted the raven off the thorn and the raven, before it flew\naway, gave the Prince one of its feathers saying:\n\n\"If ever you need me, rub this feather.\"\n\nSo the Prince reached the house of the Old Woman of the Mountain with\nthe fish's scale, the fox's hair, and the raven's feather each safely\ntied in a corner of his handkerchief.\n\nThe Old Woman of the Mountain was an ugly old witch with a long nose\nthat hooked down and a long chin that hooked up.\n\n\"Ha! Ha!\" she cackled when she saw the Prince. \"Another one that wants\nservice with the Old Woman, eh?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said the Prince.\n\n\"You know the conditions?\" the Old Woman said. \"Guard my mare and her\nfoal for three nights in succession and you may have any horse in my\nstable. But if she escapes you, then your head is mine and I'll stick it\nup there as a warning to other rash young men.\"\n\nThe Old Woman pointed to a high picket fence that surrounded the\ncourtyard. On every picket but one there was a grinning human skull. The\nPrince looked and the only picket that had no skull called out:\n\n\"I want my skull, granny! I want my skull!\"\n\nThe Old Woman gave a wicked laugh.\n\n\"You see,\" she said, \"we were expecting you!\"\n\nWhen night fell the Prince led out the mare and her foal to a grassy\nmeadow. To make sure that she would not escape him, he mounted her.\nMidnight came and he must have fallen asleep for suddenly he awoke to\nfind himself astride a rail with an empty bridle in his hand. In despair\nhe looked in all directions. At one end of the meadow was a pond.\n\n\"She may have gone there to drink,\" he said to himself.\n\nAt the pond he saw a hoofprint.\n\n[Illustration: _The Old Woman of the Mountain and the Wonder Horse_]\n\n\"Ah,\" he thought, \"if my fish were here, it could tell me.\"\n\nHe untied the corner of the handkerchief that had the fish scale, rubbed\nthe scale gently, and at once a little voice called out from the water:\n\n\"What is it, brother? Can I help you?\"\n\n\"Can you tell me what has become of the Old Woman's mare and foal?\"\n\n\"Aye, brother, that I can! She and the foal are turned into fish and are\ndown here in the water hiding amongst us. Strike the water three times\nwith the bridle and say: 'Mare of the Old Woman, come out!' That will\nbring her!\"\n\nThe Prince did this. There was a commotion in the water, a big fish and\na little fish leaped high in the air, fell on shore, and instantly\nchanged to mare and foal. When morning came the Prince drove them back\nto the Old Woman.\n\nShe grinned and pretended to be pleased but, when she had the mare alone\nin the stable, the Prince heard her beating the poor creature and\nsaying:\n\n\"Why didn't you do as I told you and hide among the fishes?\"\n\n\"I did,\" whinnied the mare, \"but the fishes are his friends and he found\nme!\"\n\n\"To-night,\" the Old Woman snarled, \"hide among the foxes and this time\ndon't let him find you! Do you hear me? The foxes!\"\n\nThe Prince remembered this and the second night when he awoke to find\nhimself again sitting astride a rail and holding an empty bridle in his\nhand, he untied the second corner of his handkerchief, took out the\nfox's hair, and rubbed it gently.\n\nInstantly he heard a little bark and the fox's voice said:\n\n\"What is it, brother? Can I help you?\"\n\n\"Can you tell me,\" the Prince asked, \"what has become of the Old Woman's\nmare and foal?\"\n\n\"Aye, brother, that I can! She and the foal are turned into foxes and\nare over in yonder woods now hiding among my people. Strike the earth\nthree times with the bridle and say: 'Mare of the Old Woman, come back!'\nThat will bring her!\"\n\nThe Prince did this and instantly two foxes, a vixen and a cub, came\ntrotting out of the woods and when they reached the Prince they changed\nback to mare and foal.\n\nIn the morning the Prince drove them home to the Old Woman. As before\nshe grinned and pretended to be pleased but when she had the mare alone\nin the stable the Prince heard her giving the poor creature another\nbeating and saying:\n\n\"Why didn't you do as I told you and hide among the foxes?\"\n\n\"I did,\" whinnied the mare, \"but the foxes are his friends, too, and he\nfound me!\"\n\n\"To-night,\" the Old Woman ordered, \"hide among the ravens and this time\ndon't let him find you!\"\n\nThe third night the Prince tried hard to stay awake but sleep again\novercame him and when he woke he found himself for the third time\nsitting astride a rail and holding the empty bridle in his hand. But he\nremembered the Old Woman's words and at once opened the third corner of\nhis handkerchief and taking out the raven's feather rubbed it gently.\n\nThere was a flutter of wings and a raven's hoarse voice said:\n\n\"Caw! Caw! What is it, brother? Can I help you?\"\n\n\"Can you tell me what has become of the Old Woman's mare and foal?\"\n\n\"Aye, brother, that I can! She and the foal are turned into ravens and\nare perched in yonder tall fir tree hiding among my folk. Strike the\ntrunk of the tree three times with your bridle and say: 'Mare of the\nOld Woman, come down!' That will bring her!\"\n\nThe Prince went over to the fir tree, struck it three times with the\nbridle and said:\n\n\"Mare of the Old Woman, come down!\"\n\nInstantly two ravens, a big one and a fledgling, fluttered to earth and\nchanged to mare and foal. So when morning came the Prince was able to\ndrive them back to the Old Woman and claim his reward.\n\nThe Old Woman was angry enough to kill him but she pretended to be\npleased and she smiled and grinned and she patted the Prince on the arm\nand said:\n\n\"Aye, my son, but you are a hero! You have won the reward and you are\nworthy of it. Choose now the finest horse in my stable. It is yours.\"\n\nShe drove the twelve handsome stallions out into the courtyard and urged\nthem on the Prince one after the other. But at each the Prince shook his\nhead.\n\n\"I am only a poor adventurer,\" he said. \"Such horses as these are too\nfine for me. Give me rather that poor mangy creature that lies over\nyonder on the dung heap. That is the one I choose.\"\n\nThen the Old Woman fell into an awful rage and shook and chattered and\nbegged the Prince not to take that horse.\n\n\"It would shame me,\" she said, \"to have you ride off on that poor beast\nwhich is half dead already! No, no, my son, you mustn't take him!\"\n\n\"But that's the one I'm going to take,\" the Prince said firmly, \"that\nand none other!\" He drew his sword and lifted it threateningly. \"I have\nwon whatever horse I choose and now, Old Woman, if you do not keep your\nbargain I shall strike you dead with this sword and stick up your\ngrinning skull on that empty picket!\"\n\nAt that the empty picket began to shout:\n\n\"I want my skull! I want my skull!\"\n\nWhen the Old Woman of the Mountain saw that the Prince knew what he was\nabout, she gave up trying to deceive him and let him lead off the horse\nhe wanted. So the Prince walked away dragging the poor mangy creature\nafter him. When he was out of sight of the Old Woman's house, he turned\nto the horse and began rubbing down his rough coat and patting his\nwobbly legs.\n\n\"Now, my beauty,\" he said, \"we'll see what you're made of!\"\n\nUnder his hand the mangy beast changed to a glorious animal--one of\nthose wonder horses of the olden days that rise on the wind and gallop\nwith the clouds. Soon his coat shone like burnished gold and his tail\nand mane streamed out like flames of fire.\n\n\"Ah, my master,\" the horse said, \"I have been waiting for you this many\na day! We shall have glorious adventures together!\"\n\nThen the Prince mounted him and he rose on the wind and went so swiftly\nthat he covered in three minutes all the distance that it had taken the\nPrince three days to go on an ordinary horse. Whiff! and there they were\nat the dragon's castle and there was the Princess running out to welcome\nthem.\n\n\"Now, my dear one,\" the Prince said, lifting the Princess up in front of\nhim, \"this time the dragon will not overtake us!\"\n\nThe wonder horse rose on the wind and off they went.\n\nWhen the dragon got home and found that the Princess had fled again, he\nsaid to his horse:\n\n\"Shall we follow her at once or shall we eat supper first?\"\n\n\"It's all one what we do,\" the horse said, \"for we shall never overtake\nher.\"\n\nAt that the dragon leaped upon his horse and, mounting on the wind,\nstarted off in hot pursuit. Presently they caught sight of the other\nhorse carrying the Prince and the Princess but, try as he would, the\ndragon's horse could not overtake the other. The dragon beat his horse\nunmercifully and dug his sharp claws into the horse's tender flanks\nuntil the horse in agony called out to the Prince's horse:\n\n\"Hold, brother, hold! Let me overtake you or this monster will kill me\nwith his cruelty!\"\n\n\"Why do you carry such a monster?\" the Prince's horse called back.\n\"Throw him from you and be rid of him forever!\"\n\nAt that the dragon's horse reared suddenly and the dragon, losing his\nbalance, fell and was dashed to pieces on the rocks below.\n\nAnd that was the end of that dragon!\n\nThen the Princess wept but her tears were tears of joy for she knew now\nthat the enchantment that had bound her was broken forever. Never again\nwould she be changed into a peafowl at the whim of a wicked dragon,\nnever again be separated from her loved one. Presently she mounted the\ndragon's horse and together she and the Prince returned to the beautiful\ncity. The people came out to meet them and when they heard of the\ndragon's death a holiday was proclaimed and amidst music and dancing and\nmerrymaking the Princess married the Prince. Then she was made Queen of\nthat beautiful city and the Prince was made King. They ruled long and\nwisely and better than that they lived happily for they loved each\nother.\n\n_So now you know the story of the Peafowl who became a Queen and of the\nTsar's Youngest Son who married her._\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE DRAGON'S STRENGTH\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of the Youngest Prince Who Killed the Sparrow_\n\n\n\n\nTHE DRAGON'S STRENGTH\n\n\nThere was once a King who had three sons. One day the oldest son went\nhunting and when night fell his huntsmen came riding home without him.\n\n\"Where is the prince?\" the King asked.\n\n\"Isn't he here?\" the huntsmen said. \"He left us in midafternoon chasing\na hare near the Old Mill up the river. We haven't seen him since and we\nsupposed he must have come home alone.\"\n\nWhen he hadn't returned the following day his brother, the second\nprince, went out to search for him.\n\n\"I'll go to the Old Mill,\" he said to the King, \"and see what's become\nof him.\"\n\nSo he mounted his horse and rode up the river. As he neared the Old Mill\na hare crossed his path and the second prince being a hunter like his\nbrother at once gave chase. His attendant waited for his return but\nwaited in vain. Night fell and still there was no sign of the second\nprince.\n\nThe attendant returned to the palace and told the King what had\nhappened. The King was surprised but not unduly alarmed and the\nfollowing day when the Youngest Prince asked to go hunting alone the\nKing suggested that he go in the direction of the Old Mill to find out\nif he could what was keeping his brothers.\n\nThe Youngest Prince who had listened carefully to what his brothers'\nattendants had reported decided to act cautiously. So when a hare\ncrossed his path as he approached the Old Mill, instead of giving it\nchase, he rode off as though he were hunting other game. Later he\nreturned to the Old Mill from another direction.\n\nHe found an old woman sitting in front of it.\n\n\"Good evening, granny,\" he said in a friendly tone, pulling up his horse\nfor a moment's chat. \"Do you live here? You know I thought the Old Mill\nwas deserted.\"\n\nThe old woman looked at him and shook her head gloomily.\n\n\"Deserted indeed! My boy, take an old woman's advice and don't have\nanything to do with this old mill! It's an evil place!\"\n\n\"Why, granny,\" the Prince said, \"what's the matter with it?\"\n\nThe old woman peered cautiously around and when she saw they were alone\nshe beckoned the Prince to come near. Then she whispered:\n\n\"A dragon lives here! A horrible monster! He takes the form of a hare\nand lures people into the mill. Then he captures them. Some of them he\nkills and eats and others he holds as prisoners in an underground\ndungeon. I'm one of his prisoners and he keeps me here to work for him.\"\n\n\"Granny,\" the Youngest Prince said, \"would you like me to rescue you?\"\n\n\"My boy, you couldn't do it! You have no idea what a strong evil monster\nthe dragon is.\"\n\n\"If you found out something for me, granny, I think I might be able to\novercome the dragon and rescue you.\"\n\nThe old woman was doubtful but she promised to do anything the Youngest\nPrince asked.\n\n\"Well then, granny, find out from the dragon where his strength is,\nwhether in his own body or somewhere else. Find out to-night and I'll\ncome back to-morrow at this same hour to see you.\"\n\nSo that night when the dragon came home, after he had supped and when\nshe was scratching his head to make him drowsy for bed, the old woman\nsaid to him:\n\n\"Master, I think you're the strongest dragon in the world! Tell me now,\nwhere does your strength lie--in your own beautiful body or somewhere\nelse?\"\n\n\"You're right, old woman,\" the dragon grunted: \"I am pretty strong as\ndragons go. But I don't keep my strength in my own body. No, indeed!\nThat would be too dangerous. I keep it in the hearth yonder.\"\n\nAt that the old woman ran over to the hearth and, stooping down, she\nkissed it and caressed it.\n\n\"O beautiful hearth!\" she said, \"where my master's strength is hidden!\nHow happy are the ashes that cover your stones!\"\n\nThe dragon laughed with amusement.\n\n\"That's the time I fooled you, old woman! My strength isn't in the\nhearth at all! It's in the tree in front of the mill.\"\n\nThe old woman at once ran out of the mill and threw her arms about the\ntree.\n\n\"O tree!\" she cried, \"most beautiful tree in the world, guard carefully\nour master's strength and let no harm come to it!\"\n\nAgain the dragon laughed.\n\n\"I've fooled you another time, old woman! Come here and scratch my head\nsome more and this time I'll tell you the truth for I see you really\nlove your master.\"\n\nSo the old woman went back and scratched the dragon's head and the\ndragon told her the truth about his strength.\n\n\"I keep it far away,\" he said. \"In the third kingdom from here near the\nTsar's own city there is a deep lake. A dragon lives at the bottom of\nthe lake. In the dragon there is a wild boar; in the boar a hare; in the\nhare a pigeon; in the pigeon a sparrow. My strength is in the sparrow.\nLet any one kill the sparrow and I should die that instant. But I am\nsafe. No one but shepherds ever come to the lake and even they don't\ncome any more for the dragon has eaten up so many of them that the lake\nhas got a bad name. Indeed, nowadays even the Tsar himself is hard put\nto it to find a shepherd. Oh, I tell you, old woman, your master is a\nclever one!\"\n\nSo now the old woman had the dragon's secret and the next day she told\nit to the Youngest Prince. He at once devised a plan whereby he hoped to\novercome the dragon. He dressed himself as a shepherd and with crook in\nhand started off on foot for the third kingdom. He traveled through\nvillages and towns, across rivers and over mountains, and reached at\nlast the third kingdom and the Tsar's own city. He presented himself at\nthe palace and asked employment as a shepherd.\n\nThe guards looked at him in surprise and said:\n\n\"A shepherd! Are you sure you want to be a shepherd?\"\n\nThen they called to their companions: \"Here's a youth who wants to be a\nshepherd!\" And the word went through the palace and even the Tsar heard\nit.\n\n\"Send the youth to me,\" he ordered.\n\n\"Do you really want to be my shepherd?\" he asked the Youngest Prince.\n\nThe Youngest Prince said yes, he did.\n\n\"If I put you in charge of the sheep, where would you pasture them?\"\n\n\"Isn't there a lake beyond the city,\" the Prince asked, \"where the\ngrazing is good?\"\n\n\"H'm!\" said the Tsar. \"So you know about that lake, too! What else do\nyou know?\"\n\n\"I've heard the shepherds disappear.\"\n\n\"And still you want to try your luck?\" the Tsar exclaimed.\n\nJust then the Tsar's only daughter, a lovely Princess, who had been\nlooking at the young stranger, slipped over to her father and whispered:\n\n\"But, father, you can't let such a handsome young man as that go off\nwith the sheep! It would be dreadful if he never returned!\"\n\nThe Tsar whispered back:\n\n\"Hush, child! Your concern for the young man's safety does credit to\nyour noble feelings. But this is not the time or the place for\nsentiment. We must consider first the welfare of the royal sheep.\"\n\nHe turned to the Youngest Prince:\n\n\"Very well, young man, you may consider yourself engaged as shepherd.\nProvide yourself with whatever you need and assume your duties at once.\"\n\n\"There is one thing,\" the Youngest Prince said; \"when I start out\nto-morrow morning with the sheep I should like to take with me two\nstrong boarhounds, a falcon, and a set of bagpipes.\"\n\n\"You shall have them all,\" the Tsar promised.\n\nEarly the next morning when the Princess peeped out of her bedroom\nwindow she saw the new shepherd driving the royal flocks to pasture. A\nfalcon was perched on his shoulder; he had a set of bagpipes under his\narm; and he was leading two powerful boarhounds on a leash.\n\n\"It's a shame!\" the Princess said to herself. \"He'll probably never\nreturn and he's such a handsome young man, too!\" And she was so unhappy\nat thought of never again seeing the new shepherd that she couldn't go\nback to sleep.\n\nWell, the Youngest Prince reached the lake and turned out his sheep to\ngraze. He perched the falcon on a log, tied the dogs beside it, and laid\nhis bagpipes on the ground. Then he took off his smock, rolled up his\nhose, and wading boldly into the lake called out in a loud voice:\n\n\"Ho, dragon, come out and we'll try a wrestling match! That is, if\nyou're not afraid!\"\n\n\"Afraid?\" bellowed an awful voice. \"Who's afraid?\"\n\nThe water of the lake churned this way and that and a horrible scaly\nmonster came to the surface. He crawled out on shore and clutched the\nPrince around the waist. And the Prince clutched him in a grip just as\nstrong and there they swayed back and forth, and rolled over, and\nwrestled together on the shore of the lake without either getting the\nbetter of the other. By midafternoon when the sun was hot, the dragon\ngrew faint and cried out:\n\n\"Oh, if I could but dip my burning head in the cool water, then I could\ntoss you as high as the sky!\"\n\n\"Don't talk nonsense!\" the Prince said. \"If the Tsar's daughter would\nkiss my forehead, then I could toss you twice as high!\"\n\nAfter that the dragon slipped out of the Prince's grasp, plunged into\nthe water, and disappeared. The Prince waited for him but he didn't show\nhis scaly head again that day.\n\nWhen evening came, the Prince washed off the grime of the fight, dressed\nhimself carefully, and then looking as fresh and handsome as ever drove\nhome his sheep. With the falcon on his shoulder and the two hounds at\nhis heels he came playing a merry tune on his bagpipes.\n\nThe townspeople hearing the bagpipes ran out of their houses and cried\nto each other:\n\n\"The shepherd's come back!\"\n\nThe Princess ran to her window and, when she saw the shepherd alive and\nwell, she put her hand to her heart and said:\n\n\"Oh!\"\n\nEven the Tsar was pleased.\n\n\"I'm not a bit surprised that he's back!\" he said. \"There's something\nabout this youth that I like!\"\n\nThe next day the Tsar sent two of his trusted servants to the lake to\nsee what was happening there. They hid themselves behind some bushes on\na little hill that commanded the lake. They were there when the shepherd\narrived and they watched him as he waded out into the water and\nchallenged the dragon as on the day before.\n\nThey heard the shepherd call out in a loud voice:\n\n\"Ho, dragon, come out and we'll try a wrestling match! That is, if\nyou're not afraid!\"\n\nAnd from the water they heard an awful voice bellow back:\n\n\"Afraid? Who's afraid?\"\n\nThen they saw the water of the lake churn this way and that and a\nhorrible scaly monster come to the surface. They saw him crawl out on\nshore and clutch the shepherd around the waist. And they saw the\nshepherd clutch him in a grip just as strong. And they watched the two\nas they swayed back and forth and rolled over and wrestled together\nwithout either getting the better of the other. By midafternoon when the\nsun grew hot they saw the dragon grow faint and they heard him cry out:\n\n\"Oh, if I could only dip my burning head in the cool water, then I could\ntoss you as high as the sky!\"\n\nAnd they heard the shepherd reply:\n\n\"Don't talk nonsense! If the Tsar's daughter would kiss my forehead,\nthen I could toss you twice as high!\"\n\nThen they saw the dragon slip out of the shepherd's grasp, plunge into\nthe water, and disappear. They waited but he didn't show his scaly head\nagain that day.\n\nSo the Tsar's servants hurried home before the shepherd and told the\nTsar all they had seen and heard. The Tsar was mightily impressed with\nthe bravery of the shepherd and he declared that if he killed that\nhorrid dragon he should have the Princess herself for wife!\n\nHe sent for his daughter and told her all that his servants had reported\nand he said to her:\n\n\"My daughter, you, too, can help rid your country of this monster if you\ngo out with the shepherd to-morrow and when the time comes kiss him on\nthe forehead. You will do this, will you not, for your country's sake?\"\n\nThe Princess blushed and trembled and the Tsar, looking at her in\nsurprise, said:\n\n\"What! Shall a humble shepherd face a dragon unafraid and the daughter\nof the Tsar tremble!\"\n\n\"Father,\" the Princess cried, \"it isn't the dragon that I'm afraid of!\"\n\n\"What then?\" the Tsar asked.\n\nBut what it was she was afraid of the Princess would not confess.\nInstead she said:\n\n\"If the welfare of my country require that I kiss the shepherd on the\nforehead, I shall do so.\"\n\nSo the next morning when the shepherd started out with his sheep, the\nfalcon on his shoulder, the dogs at his heels, the bagpipes under his\narm, the Princess walked beside him.\n\nHer eyes were downcast and he saw that she was trembling.\n\n\"Do not be afraid, dear Princess,\" he said to her. \"Nothing shall harm\nyou--I promise that!\"\n\n\"I'm not afraid,\" the Princess murmured. But she continued to blush and\ntremble and, although the shepherd tried to look into her eyes to\nreassure her, she kept her head averted.\n\nThis time the Tsar himself and many of his courtiers had gone on before\nand taken their stand on the hill that overlooked the lake to see the\nfinal combat of the shepherd and the dragon.\n\nWhen the shepherd and the Princess reached the lake, the shepherd put\nhis falcon on the log as before and tied the dogs beside it and laid his\nbagpipes on the ground. Then he threw off his smock, rolled up his hose,\nand wading boldly into the lake called out in a loud voice:\n\n\"Ho, dragon, come out and we'll try a wrestling match! That is, if\nyou're not afraid!\"\n\n\"Afraid?\" bellowed an awful voice. \"Who's afraid?\"\n\n[Illustration: _Next Morning the Princess Peeped Out and Saw the\nShepherd_]\n\nThe water of the lake churned this way and that and the horrible scaly\nmonster came to the surface. He crawled to shore and clutched the\nshepherd around the waist. The shepherd clutched him in a grip just\nas strong and there they swayed back and forth and rolled over and\nwrestled together on the shore of the lake without either getting the\nbetter of the other. The Princess without the least show of fear stood\nnearby calling out encouragement to the shepherd and waiting for the\nmoment when the shepherd should need her help.\n\nBy midafternoon when the sun was hot, the dragon grew faint and cried\nout:\n\n\"Oh, if I could but dip my burning head in the cool water, then I could\ntoss you as high as the sky!\"\n\n\"Don't talk nonsense!\" the shepherd said. \"If the Tsar's daughter would\nkiss my forehead then I could toss you twice as high!\"\n\nInstantly the Princess ran forward and kissed the shepherd three times.\nThe first kiss fell on his forehead, the second on his nose, the third\non his mouth. With each kiss his strength increased an hundredfold and\ntaking the dragon in a mighty grip he tossed him up so high that for a\nmoment the Tsar and all the courtiers lost sight of him in the sky. Then\nhe fell to earth with such a thud that he burst.\n\nOut of his body sprang a wild boar. The shepherd was ready for this and\non the moment he unleashed the two hounds and they fell on the boar and\ntore him to pieces.\n\nOut of the boar jumped a rabbit. It went leaping across the meadow but\nthe dogs caught it and killed it.\n\nOut of the rabbit flew a pigeon. Instantly the shepherd unloosed the\nfalcon. It rose high in the air, then swooped down upon the pigeon,\nclutched it in its talons, and delivered it into the shepherd's hands.\n\nHe cut open the pigeon and found the sparrow.\n\n\"Spare me! Spare me!\" squawked the sparrow.\n\n\"Tell me where my brothers are,\" the shepherd demanded with his fingers\nabout the sparrow's throat.\n\n\"Your brothers? They are alive and in the deep dungeon that lies below\nthe Old Mill. Behind the mill there are three willow saplings growing\nfrom one old root. Cut the saplings and strike the root. A heavy iron\ndoor leading down into the dungeon will open. In the dungeon you will\nfind many captives old and young, your brothers among them. Now that I\nhave told you this are you going to spare my life?\"\n\nBut the shepherd wrung the sparrow's neck for he knew that only in that\nway could the monster who had captured his brothers be killed.\n\nWell, now that the dragon was dead the Tsar and all his courtiers came\ndown from the hill and embraced the shepherd and told him what a brave\nyouth he was.\n\n\"You have delivered us all from a horrid monster,\" the Tsar said, \"and\nto show you my gratitude and the country's gratitude I offer you my\ndaughter for wife.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" said the shepherd, \"but I couldn't think of marrying the\nPrincess unless she is willing to marry me.\"\n\nThe Princess blushed and trembled just as she had blushed and trembled\nthe night before and that morning, too, on the way to the lake. She\ntried to speak but could not at first. Then in a very little voice she\nsaid:\n\n\"As a Princess I think it is my duty to marry this brave shepherd who\nhas delivered my country from this terrible dragon, and--and I think I\nshould want to marry him anyway.\"\n\nShe said the last part of her speech in such a very low voice that only\nthe shepherd himself heard it. But that was right enough because after\nall it was intended only for him.\n\nSo then and there beside the lake before even the shepherd had time to\nwash his face and hands and put on his smock the Tsar put the Princess's\nhand in his hand and pronounced them betrothed.\n\nAfter that the shepherd bathed in the lake and then refreshed and clean\nhe sounded his bagpipes and he and the Princess and the Tsar and all the\ncourtiers returned to the city driving the sheep before them.\n\nAll the townspeople came out to meet them and they danced to the music\nof the bagpipes and there was great rejoicing both over the death of the\ndragon and over the betrothal of the Princess and the brave shepherd.\n\nThe wedding took place at once and the wedding festivities lasted a\nweek. Such feasting as the townspeople had! Such music and dancing!\n\nWhen the wedding festivities were ended, the shepherd told the Tsar who\nhe really was.\n\n\"You say you're a Prince!\" the Tsar cried, perfectly delighted at this\nnews. Then he declared he wasn't in the least surprised. In fact, he\nsaid, he had suspected as much from the first!\n\n\"Do you think it likely,\" he asked somewhat pompously, \"that any\ndaughter of mine would fall in love with a man who wasn't a prince?\"\n\n\"I think I'd have fallen in love with you whatever you were!\" whispered\nthe Princess to her young husband. But she didn't let her father hear\nher!\n\nThe Prince told the Tsar about his brothers' captivity and how he must\ngo home to release them, and the Tsar at once said that he and his\nbride might go provided they returned as soon as possible.\n\nThey agreed to this and the Tsar fitted out a splendid escort for them\nand sent them away with his blessing.\n\nSo the Prince now traveled back through the towns and villages of three\nkingdoms, across rivers and over mountains, no longer a humble shepherd\non foot, but a rich and mighty personage riding in a manner that\nbefitted his rank.\n\nWhen he reached the deserted mill, his friend the old woman was waiting\nfor him.\n\n\"I know, my Prince, you have succeeded for the monster has disappeared.\"\n\n\"Yes, granny, you are right: I have succeeded. I found the dragon in the\nlake, and the boar in the dragon, and the rabbit in the boar, and the\npigeon in the rabbit, and the sparrow in the pigeon. I took the sparrow\nand killed it. So you are free now, granny, to return to your home. And\nsoon all those other poor captives will be free.\"\n\nHe went behind the mill and found the three willow saplings. He cut them\noff and struck the old root. Sure enough a heavy iron door opened. This\nled down into a deep dungeon which was crowded with unfortunate\nprisoners. The Prince led them all out and sent them their various ways.\nHe found his own two brothers among them and led them home to his\nfather.\n\nThere was great rejoicing in the King's house, and in the King's heart,\ntoo, for he had given up hope of ever seeing any of his sons again.\n\nThe King was so charmed with the Princess that he said it was a pity\nthat she couldn't marry his oldest son so that she might one day be\nQueen.\n\n\"The Youngest Prince is a capable young man,\" the King said, \"and\nthere's no denying that he managed this business of killing the dragon\nvery neatly. But he is after all only the Youngest Prince with very\nlittle hope of succeeding to the kingdom. If you hadn't married him in\nsuch haste one of his older brothers might easily have fallen in love\nwith you.\"\n\n\"I don't regret my haste,\" the Princess said. \"Besides he is now my\nfather's heir. But that doesn't matter for I should be happy with the\nYoungest Prince if he were only a shepherd.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE LITTLE SINGING FROG\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of a Girl Whose Parents Were Ashamed of Her_\n\n\n\n\nTHE LITTLE SINGING FROG\n\n\nThere was once a poor laborer and his wife who had no children. Every\nday the woman would sigh and say:\n\n\"If only we had a child!\"\n\nThen the man would sigh, too, and say:\n\n\"It would be pleasant to have a little daughter, wouldn't it?\"\n\nAt last they went on a pilgrimage to a holy shrine and there they prayed\nGod to give them a child.\n\n\"Any kind of a child!\" the woman prayed. \"I'd be thankful for a child of\nour own even if it were a frog!\"\n\nGod heard their prayer and sent them a little daughter--not a little\ngirl daughter, however, but a little frog daughter. They loved their\nlittle frog child dearly and played with her and laughed and clapped\ntheir hands as they watched her hopping about the house. But when the\nneighbors came in and whispered: \"Why, that child of theirs is nothing\nbut a frog!\" they were ashamed and they decided that when people were\nabout they had better keep their child hidden in a closet.\n\nSo the frog girl grew up without playmates of her own age, seeing only\nher father and mother. She used to play about her father as he worked.\nHe was a vine-dresser in a big vineyard and of course it was great fun\nfor the little frog girl to hop about among the vines.\n\nEvery day at noontime the woman used to come to the vineyard carrying\nher husband's dinner in a basket. The years went by and she grew old and\nfeeble and the daily trip to the vineyard began to tire her and the\nbasket seemed to her to grow heavier and heavier.\n\n\"Let me help you, mother,\" the frog daughter said. \"Let me carry\nfather's dinner to him and you sit home and rest.\"\n\nSo from that time on the frog girl instead of the old woman carried the\ndinner basket to the vineyard. While the old man ate, the frog girl\nwould hop up into the branches of a tree and sing. She sang very sweetly\nand her old father, when he petted her, used to call her his Little\nSinging Frog.\n\nNow one day while she was singing the Tsar's Youngest Son rode by and\nheard her. He stopped his horse and looked this way and that but for the\nlife of him he couldn't see who it was who was singing so sweetly.\n\n\"Who is singing?\" he asked the old man.\n\nBut the old man who, as I told you before, was ashamed of his frog\ndaughter before strangers, at first pretended not to hear and then, when\nthe young Prince repeated his question, answered gruffly:\n\n\"There's no one singing!\"\n\nBut the next day at the same hour when the Prince was again riding by he\nheard the same sweet voice and he stopped again and listened.\n\n\"Surely, old man,\" he said, \"there is some one singing! It is a lovely\ngirl, I know it is! Why, if I could find her, I'd be willing to marry\nher at once and take her home to my father, the Tsar!\"\n\n\"Don't be rash, young man,\" the laborer said.\n\n\"I mean what I say!\" the Prince declared. \"I'd marry her in a minute!\"\n\n\"Are you sure you would?\"\n\n\"Yes, I'm sure!\"\n\n\"Very well, then, we'll see.\"\n\nThe old man looked up into the tree and called:\n\n\"Come down, Little Singing Frog! A Prince wants to marry you!\"\n\nSo the little frog girl hopped down from among the branches and stood\nbefore the Prince.\n\n\"She's my own daughter,\" the laborer said, \"even if she does look like a\nfrog.\"\n\n\"I don't care what she looks like,\" the Prince said. \"I love her\nsinging and I love her. And I mean what I say: I'll marry her if she'll\nmarry me. My father, the Tsar, bids me and my brothers present him our\nbrides to-morrow. He bids all the brides bring him a flower and he says\nhe'll give the kingdom to the prince whose bride brings the loveliest\nflower. Little Singing Frog, will you be my bride and will you come to\nCourt to-morrow bringing a flower?\"\n\n\"Yes, my Prince,\" the frog girl said, \"I will. But I must not shame you\nby hopping to Court in the dust. I must ride. So, will you send me a\nsnow-white cock from your father's barnyard?\"\n\n\"I will,\" the Prince promised, and before night the snow-white cock had\narrived at the laborer's cottage.\n\nEarly the next morning the frog girl prayed to the Sun.\n\n\"O golden Sun,\" she said, \"I need your help! Give me some lovely clothes\nwoven of your golden rays for I would not shame my Prince when I go to\nCourt.\"\n\nThe Sun heard her prayer and gave her a gown of cloth of gold.\n\nInstead of a flower she took a spear of wheat in her hand and then when\nthe time came she mounted the white cock and rode to the palace.\n\n[Illustration: _This, the Bride of the Youngest Prince, Is My Choice_]\n\nThe guards at the palace gate at first refused to admit her.\n\n\"This is no place for frogs!\" they said to her. \"You're looking for a\npond!\"\n\nBut when she told them she was the Youngest Prince's bride, they were\nafraid to drive her away. So they let her ride through the gate.\n\n\"Strange!\" they murmured to one another. \"The Youngest Prince's bride!\nShe looks like a frog and that was certainly a cock she was riding,\nwasn't it?\"\n\nThey stepped inside the gates to look after her and then they saw an\namazing sight. The frog girl, still seated on the white cock, was\nshaking out the folds of a golden gown. She dropped the gown over her\nhead and instantly there was no frog and no white cock but a lovely\nmaiden mounted on a snow-white horse!\n\nWell, the frog girl entered the palace with two other girls, the\npromised brides of the older princes. They were just ordinary girls both\nof them. To see them you wouldn't have paid any attention to them one\nway or the other. But standing beside the lovely bride of the Youngest\nPrince they seemed more ordinary than ever.\n\nThe first girl had a rose in her hand. The Tsar looked at it and at her,\nsniffed his nose slightly, and turned his head.\n\nThe second girl had a carnation. The Tsar looked at her for a moment and\nmurmured:\n\n\"Dear me, this will never do!\"\n\nThen he looked at the Youngest Prince's bride and his eye kindled and he\nsaid:\n\n\"Ah! This is something like!\"\n\nShe gave him the spear of wheat and he took it and held it aloft. Then\nhe reached out his other hand to her and had her stand beside him as he\nsaid to his sons and all the Court:\n\n\"This, the bride of the Youngest Prince, is my choice! See how beautiful\nshe is! And yet she knows the useful as well as the beautiful for she\nhas brought me a spear of wheat! The Youngest Prince shall be the Tsar\nafter me and she shall be Tsarina!\"\n\nSo the little frog girl of whom her parents were ashamed married the\nYoungest Prince and when the time came wore a Tsarina's crown.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE NIGHTINGALE IN THE MOSQUE\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of the Sultan's Youngest Son and the Princess Flower o' the\nWorld_\n\n\n\n\nTHE NIGHTINGALE IN THE MOSQUE\n\n\nThere was once a Sultan who was so pious and devout that he spent many\nhours every day in prayer.\n\n\"For the glory of Allah,\" he thought to himself, \"I ought to build the\nmost beautiful mosque in the world.\"\n\nSo he called together the finest artisans in the country and told them\nwhat he wanted. He spent a third of his riches on the undertaking, and\nwhen the mosque was finished everybody said:\n\n\"See now, our Sultan has built the most beautiful mosque in the world\nfor the greater glory of Allah!\"\n\nOn the first day when the Sultan went to pray in the new mosque, a\nDervish who was sitting cross-legged at the entrance spoke to him in a\ndroning sing-song voice and said:\n\n\"Nay, but your mosque is not yet beautiful enough! There is something it\nlacks and your prayers will be unavailing!\"\n\nThe words of the holy man grieved the Sultan and he had the mosque torn\ndown and another built in its place even more beautiful.\n\n\"This is certainly the most beautiful mosque in the world!\" the people\nsaid, and the Sultan's heart was very happy on the first day as he went\nin to pray.\n\nBut again the Dervish, seated at the entrance, said to him in his\ndroning, sing-song voice:\n\n\"Nay, but your mosque is not yet beautiful enough! There is something it\nlacks and your prayers will be unavailing!\"\n\nAt the holy man's words the Sultan had the second mosque torn down and a\nthird one built, the most beautiful of them all. But when it was\nfinished for a third time the Dervish droned out:\n\n\"Nay, but your mosque is not yet beautiful enough! There is something it\nlacks and your prayers will be unavailing!\"\n\n\"What can I do?\" the Sultan cried. \"I have spent all my riches and now I\nhave no means wherewith to build another mosque!\"\n\nHe fell to grieving and nothing any one could say would comfort him.\n\nHis three sons came to him and said:\n\n\"Father, is there not something we can do for you?\"\n\nThe Sultan sighed and shook his head.\n\n\"Nothing, my sons, unless indeed you were to find out for me why my\nthird mosque is not the most beautiful in the world.\"\n\n\"Brothers,\" the youngest suggested, \"let us go to the Dervish and ask\nhim why it is that the third mosque is not yet beautiful enough. Perhaps\nhe will tell us what is lacking.\"\n\nSo they went to the Dervish and asked him what he meant by saying to the\nSultan that the third mosque was not yet beautiful enough and they\nbegged him to tell them what it was that was lacking.\n\nThe Dervish fixed his eyes in the distance and slightly swaying his body\nback and forth answered them in his sing-song tone.\n\n\"The mosque is beautiful,\" he said, \"and the fountain in its midst is\nbeautiful, but where is the glorious Nightingale Gisar? With the\nNightingale Gisar singing beside the fountain, then indeed would the\nSultan's third mosque be the most beautiful mosque in the world!\"\n\n\"Only tell us where this glorious Nightingale is,\" the brothers begged,\n\"and we will get him if it costs us our lives!\"\n\n\"I cannot tell you that,\" the Dervish droned. \"You will have to go out\ninto the world and find him for yourselves.\"\n\nSo the three brothers returned to the Sultan and told him what the\nDervish had said.\n\n\"All your third mosque lacks to be the most beautiful mosque in the\nworld,\" they told him, \"is the Nightingale Gisar singing beside the\nfountain. So grieve no more, father. We, your three sons, will go out\ninto the world in quest of this glorious bird and within a year's time\nwe will return with the bird in our hands if so be that it is anywhere\nto be found in all the wide world.\"\n\nThe Sultan blessed them and they set forth the three of them, side by\nside. They traveled together until they reached a place where three\nroads branched. Upon the stone of the left-hand road nothing was\nwritten. Upon the stone of the middle road was the inscription: _Who\ngoes this way returns_. The inscription on the third stone read: _Who\ngoes this way shall meet many dangers and may never return_.\n\n\"Let us part here,\" the oldest brother said, \"and each take a separate\nroad. Then if all goes well, let us meet here again on this same spot\none year hence. As our father's oldest son it would be wrong for me to\nrun unnecessary risks, so I will take the left-hand road.\"\n\n\"And I will take the middle road,\" the second brother cried.\n\nThe Youngest Brother laughed and said:\n\n\"That leaves the dangerous road for me! Very well, brothers, that's the\nvery road I wish to take for why should I leave home if it were not to\nhave adventures! Farewell then until we meet again in one year's time.\"\n\nThe oldest traveled his safe road until he reached a city where he\nbecame a barber. He asked every man whose head he shaved:\n\n\"Do you know anything of the Nightingale Gisar?\"\n\nHe never found any one who had even heard of the bird, so after a time\nhe stopped asking.\n\nThe second brother followed the middle road to a city where he settled\ndown and opened a coffee-house.\n\n\"Have you ever heard of a glorious Nightingale known as Gisar?\" he asked\nat first of every traveler who came in and sipped his coffee. Not one of\nthem ever had and as time went by the second brother gradually stopped\neven making inquiries.\n\nThe Youngest Brother who took the dangerous road came to no city at all\nbut to a far-off desolate place without houses or highways or farms.\nWild creatures hid in the brush and snakes glided in and out among the\nrocks. One day he came upon a wild woman who was combing her hair with a\nbranch of juniper.\n\n\"That isn't the way to comb your hair,\" the Youngest Brother said.\n\"Here, let me show you.\"\n\nHe took his own comb and smoothed out all the tangles in the wild\nwoman's hair until she was comfortable and happy.\n\n\"You have been very kind to me,\" she said. \"Now isn't there something I\ncan do for you in return?\"\n\n\"I am looking for the Nightingale Gisar. If you know where that glorious\nbird is, tell me and that will more than repay me.\"\n\nBut the wild woman had never heard of the Nightingale Gisar.\n\n\"Only wild animals inhabit this desolate place,\" she said, \"and a few\nwild people like me. The Nightingale Gisar is not here.\"\n\n\"Then I must go farther,\" the Youngest Brother said.\n\nThis the wild woman begged him not to do.\n\n\"Beyond these mountains,\" she said, \"is a wilder desert with fiercer\nanimals. Turn back while you can.\"\n\n\"No,\" the Youngest Brother insisted, \"I'm going as God leads me.\"\n\nSo he left the wild woman and crossed the mountains. He went on and on\nuntil he was footsore and weary. Then at last he came to the Tiger's\nhouse.\n\nThe Tiger's wife met him.\n\n\"Be off, young man!\" she warned him, \"or the Tiger when he comes home\nwill eat you!\"\n\n\"No!\" said the Youngest Brother, \"now I'm here I'm going to stay for I\nhave a question to ask the Tiger.\"\n\nThe Tiger's wife was making bread. When the dough was ready to go into\nthe oven, she leaned over the glowing embers of the fire and began to\nbrush them aside with her body.\n\n\"Stop!\" the Youngest Brother cried. \"You will burn yourself!\"\n\n\"But how else can I brush aside the glowing embers?\" the Tiger's wife\nasked.\n\n\"I'll show you.\"\n\nThe Youngest Brother cut a branch from a tree outside and fashioned it\ninto a rough broom. Then he showed the Tiger's wife how to use it.\n\n\"Ah!\" she said gratefully, \"before this always when I've baked bread\nI've been sick for ten days afterwards. Now I shall be sick no more for\nyou have taught me how to use a broom. In return let me hide you in a\ndark corner and when the Tiger comes home I'll tell him how kind you\nhave been and perhaps he will not eat you.\"\n\nSo she hid the Youngest Brother in a dark corner and when the Tiger\ncame home she met him and said:\n\n\"See, I have baked bread to-day but I am not sick, for a youth has shown\nme how I can brush aside the embers without burning myself.\"\n\nThe Tiger was overjoyed to hear that his wife had been able to bake\nbread without being made sick and he swore to be a brother to him who\nhad taught her the use of a broom. So the Youngest Brother came out from\nthe dark corner where he was hiding and the Tiger made him welcome.\n\n\"What are you doing wandering about in this wild country?\" the Tiger\nasked.\n\n\"I am searching for the Nightingale Gisar and I have come to you to ask\nyou if you can tell me where I can find that glorious bird.\"\n\nThe Tiger had never heard of the Nightingale Gisar but he thought that\nhis oldest brother the Lion might know.\n\n\"Go straight on from here,\" he said, \"until you come to the Lion's\nhouse. His old wife stands outside facing the house with her long thin\nold dugs thrown over her shoulders. Go up to her from behind and take\nher dugs and put them in your mouth and suck them and when she asks you\nwho you are, say: 'Don't you know me, old mother? I'm your oldest cub.'\nThen she will lead you in to the Lion who is so old that his eyelids\ndroop. Prop them open and when he sees you he will tell you what he\nknows.\"\n\nSo the Youngest Brother went on to the Lion's house and he found the\nLion's old wife standing outside as the Tiger said he would. He did all\nthe Tiger had told him to do and when the Lion's wife asked him who he\nwas, he said: 'Don't you know me, old mother? I'm your oldest cub.' Then\nthe Lion's old wife led him in to the Lion and he propped open the\nLion's drooping eyelids and asked about the Nightingale Gisar.\n\nThe old Lion shook his head.\n\n\"I have never heard of the Nightingale Gisar. He has never sung in this\nwild place. Turn back, young man, and seek him elsewhere. Beyond this is\na country of wilder creatures where you will only lose your life.\"\n\n\"That is as God wills,\" the Youngest Brother said.\n\nWith that he bade the old Lion and his old wife farewell and pushed on\ninto the farther wilds. The mountains grew more and more rugged, the\nplains more parched and barren, and the Youngest Son was hard put to it\nto find food from day to day.\n\nOnce when he was crossing a desert three eagles swooped down upon him\nand it was all he could do to fight them off. He slashed at them with\nhis sword and succeeded in cutting off the beak of one, a wing of\nanother, and a leg of the third. He put these three things in his bag as\ntrophies.\n\nHe came at last to a hut where an old woman was baking cakes on the\nhearth.\n\n\"God bless you, granny!\" he said. \"Can you give me a bite of supper and\nshelter for the night?\"\n\nThe old woman shook her head.\n\n\"My boy, you had better not stop here. I have three daughters and if\nthey were to come home and find you here, they'd kill you.\"\n\nBut the Youngest Brother insisted that he was not afraid and at last the\nold woman let him stay. She hid him in the corner behind the firewood\nand warned him to keep still.\n\nPresently the three eagles whom he had maimed came flying into the hut.\nThe old woman put a bowl of milk on the table, the birds dipped in the\nmilk, and lo! their feather shirts opened and they stepped out three\nmaidens. One of them had lost her lips, one an arm, and the third a leg.\n\n\"Ah!\" they cried to their mother, \"see what has befallen us! If only the\nyouth who maimed us would return the beak and the wing and the leg that\nhe hacked off, we would tell him anything he wants to know.\"\n\nAt that the Youngest Brother stepped out from behind the firewood and\nsaid:\n\n\"Tell me then where I can find the Nightingale Gisar and you shall have\nback your beak and your wing and your leg.\"\n\nHe opened his bag and the maidens were overjoyed to see their beak and\ntheir wing and their leg. Then they told the Youngest Brother all they\nknew about the Nightingale Gisar.\n\n\"Far from here,\" they said, \"there is a Warrior Princess, so beautiful\nthat men call her Flower o' the World. She has the Nightingale Gisar in\na golden cage hanging in her own chamber. The chamber door is guarded by\na lion and a wolf and a tiger for the Flower o' the World knows that she\nwill have to marry the man who steals from her the Nightingale Gisar.\"\n\n\"How can a man enter the chamber of the Flower o' the World?\" the\nYoungest Brother asked.\n\n\"For a few moments at midnight,\" the sisters told him, \"the three\nanimals sleep. During those few moments a man could enter the chamber,\nget the Nightingale Gisar, and escape. But even then he might not be\nsafe for the Flower o' the World might gather her army together and\npursue him.\"\n\n\"Now tell me how to reach the palace of that Warrior Princess, Flower o'\nthe World.\"\n\n\"You could never get there alone,\" they told him, \"the way is too long\nand the dangers are too many. Stay here with us for three months and at\nthe end of three months we will carry you thither on our wings.\"\n\nSo for three months the Youngest Brother stayed on in the hut with the\nold woman and her three daughters. The three daughters flew in their\neagle shirts to the spring of the Water of Life and bathing in that\nmagic pool they made grow on again the beak and the wing and the leg\nwhich the Youngest Brother had hacked off.\n\nAt the end of three months they carried the Youngest Brother on their\nwings to the distant kingdom where the Warrior Princess, Flower o' the\nWorld, lived.\n\nAt midnight they set him down in front of the palace and he slipped\nunseen through the guards at the gate and through the halls of the\npalace to the Princess's own chamber. The lion, the wolf, and the tiger\nwere asleep and he was able to push back the curtain before which they\nwere lying and creep up to the Princess's very bedside without being\ndiscovered.\n\nHe looked once at the sleeping Flower o' the World and she was so\nbeautiful that he dared not look again for fear he should forget the\nNightingale Gisar and betray himself by crying out.\n\nAt the head of the bed were four lighted candles and at the foot four\nunlighted ones. He blew out the lighted ones and lit the others. Then\nquickly he took the golden cage in which the Nightingale Gisar was\nperched asleep, unfastened it from the golden chain on which it was\nhanging, and hurried out. The eagles were waiting for him and at once\nthey spread their wings and carried him away.\n\nThey put him down at the crossroads where he had parted from his\nbrothers just one year before. Then they bade him farewell and flew off\nto their home in the desert.\n\n\"My brothers will probably be here in an hour or so,\" the Youngest Son\nthought. \"I had better wait for them.\"\n\nHe felt sleepy, so he lay down by the roadside and closed his eyes.\n\nWhile he slept his brothers arrived and of course the first thing they\nsaw was the golden cage and the Nightingale Gisar.\n\nThen envy and hatred filled their hearts and they began cursing and\ncomplaining to think that he who was the Youngest had succeeded where\nthey had failed.\n\n\"We'll be the laughing-stock of the whole country!\" they said, \"if we\nlet him come home carrying the Nightingale Gisar! Let us take the bird\nwhile he sleeps and hurry home with it. Then if he comes home later and\nsays it was he who really found the bird no one will believe him.\"\n\nSo they beat their brother into insensibility and tore his clothes to\nrags to make him think that he had been set upon by robbers, and then\ntaking the golden cage and the Nightingale Gisar they hurried home and\npresented themselves to their father, the Sultan.\n\n\"Here, O father,\" they said, \"is the Nightingale Gisar! To get this\nglorious bird for you we have endured all the perils in the world!\"\n\n\"And your Youngest Brother,\" the Sultan asked, \"where is he?\"\n\n\"The Youngest? Think no more of him, father, for he is unworthy to be\nyour son. Instead of searching the wide world for the Nightingale Gisar,\nhe settled down in the first city he reached and lived a life of\nidleness and ease. Some say he became a barber and some say he opened a\ncoffee-house and spent his days chatting with passing travelers. He has\nnot come home with us for no doubt it shames him to know that we have\nsucceeded where he has failed.\"\n\nThe Sultan was grieved to hear this evil report of his Youngest Son, but\nhe was overjoyed to have the Nightingale Gisar. He had the golden cage\ncarried to the mosque and hung beside the fountain in the court.\n\nBut imagine his disappointment when the bird refused to sing!\n\n\"Let him who found the Nightingale come to the mosque,\" the Dervish said\nin his droning sing-song voice, \"and then the Nightingale will sing.\"\n\nThe Sultan immediately sent for his two sons. They came but still the\nbird was silent.\n\n\"See now,\" the Sultan said, \"my two sons are here and yet the bird is\nsilent.\"\n\nBut the Dervish would only repeat:\n\n\"Let him who found the Nightingale come to the mosque and then the\nNightingale will sing.\"\n\nThe next day a youth in rags whom nobody knew entered the mosque to pray\nand instantly the Nightingale began to sing.\n\nA messenger was sent running to the Sultan with the news that the\nNightingale was singing. The Sultan hurried to the mosque but by the\ntime he got there the beggar youth was gone and the Nightingale had\nstopped singing.\n\n\"Now that I'm here,\" cried the Sultan, \"why does the bird not sing?\"\n\nThe Dervish, swaying his body gently back and forth, made answer as\nbefore:\n\n\"Let him who found the Nightingale come to the mosque and then the\nNightingale will sing.\"\n\nThereafter every day when the beggar youth came to the mosque to pray\nthe Nightingale sang, and always when the Sultan approached the beggar\nwalked away and the bird stopped singing. At last people began\nwhispering:\n\n\"Strange that the Nightingale should sing only when that beggar youth is\nnear! And yet the Dervish says it will not sing unless he who found it\ncomes to the mosque! What can he mean?\"\n\nReport of the beggar youth reached the ears of the Sultan and he went to\nthe Dervish and questioned him.\n\n\"Why do you say that the Nightingale Gisar will not sing unless he who\nfound him comes to the mosque? Lo, here are my two sons who found him\nand the bird remains silent, yet people tell me that when a certain\nbeggar comes to the mosque he sings. Why does he not sing when I and my\ntwo sons come to pray?\"\n\nAnd always the Dervish made the same answer in the same sing-song voice:\n\n\"Let him who found the Nightingale come to the mosque and then the\nNightingale will sing.\"\n\nSoon a terrifying rumor spread through the land that a great Warrior\nPrincess called Flower o' the World was coming with a mighty army to\nmake war on the Sultan and to destroy his city. Her army far outnumbered\nthe Sultan's and when she encamped in a broad valley over against the\ncity the Sultan's people, seeing her mighty hosts, were filled with\ndread and besought their ruler to make peace with the Princess at any\ncost. So the Sultan called his heralds and sent them to her and through\nthem he said:\n\n\"Demand of me what you will even to my life but spare my city.\"\n\nThe Warrior Princess returned this answer:\n\n\"I will spare you and your city provided you deliver me your son who\nstole from me the Nightingale Gisar. Him I shall have executed or let\nlive as it pleases me.\"\n\nNow the Sultan's two sons knew that the Flower o' the World was fated to\nmarry the man who had stolen from her the Nightingale Gisar, so when\nthey heard the Princess's demand they were overjoyed thinking that she\nwould have to fall in love with one of them. So they disputed at great\nlength as to which of them had done the actual deed of taking the bird,\neach insisting that it was he and not his brother. The Sultan himself\nhad finally to decide between them.\n\n\"You have told me,\" he said, \"that you captured the bird together. As\nthat is the case and as I can't send you both to the Warrior Princess it\nis only right that the older should go.\"\n\nSo under a splendid escort the oldest son rode to the tent of the\nWarrior Princess. She bade him enter alone and when he appeared before\nher she looked at him long and steadily. Then she said:\n\n\"Nay, but you are never the man who stole from me the Nightingale Gisar!\nYou would lack the courage to face the perils of the way!\"\n\nThe oldest prince answered the Flower o' the World craftily:\n\n\"But how, Princess, if I did not steal from you the Nightingale Gisar\nwas I then able to bring back that glorious bird and hang his cage\nbeside the fountain in the mosque?\"\n\nBut Flower o' the World was not to be deceived by such specious words.\n\n\"Tell me then,\" she said, \"if it was you who stole my glorious\nNightingale, where did you find him hanging in his golden cage?\"\n\nThe oldest prince could not answer this, so he said at random:\n\n\"I found his golden cage hanging in the cypress tree that grows in the\ngarden of your palace.\"\n\n\"Enough!\" cried the Princess.\n\nShe clapped her hands and when her guards appeared she said to them:\n\n\"Have this man executed at once and let his head be sent to the Sultan\nwith the message: _This is the head of a liar and a coward! Send me at\nonce your son who stole my glorious Nightingale Gisar or I will march\nagainst your city!_\"\n\nThe Sultan was greatly shocked to receive this message together with the\nhead of his oldest son.\n\n\"Alas!\" he cried, calling his second son, \"would that I had listened to\nyou when you insisted that it was you and not your brother who actually\ndid the deed! Unhappily I listened to your brother! See now the awful\nresult of this mistake! Go you now to this heartless Princess whom men\ncall Flower o' the World or else our poor defenseless city will have to\npay the penalty.\"\n\nSo the second prince was taken to the tent of the Warrior Maiden and she\nput to him the same questions and he fared even worse than his brother\nhad fared. So his head, too, was sent to the Sultan with this message:\n\n\"_Send me no more liars and cowards but the son who actually did steal\nfrom me my glorious Nightingale Gisar._\"\n\nIn despair the Sultan went to the mosque to pray. As he bowed his head\nhe heard the Nightingale burst forth in song. Then when he looked up he\nsaw a beggar youth standing near the fountain.\n\nWhen his prayers were finished the Sultan went outside to the Dervish\nand said to him:\n\n\"The Warrior Princess, Flower o' the World, demands that I send her\nanother son. I know not where my Third Son is. What shall I do?\"\n\nWithout looking at the Sultan the Dervish answered in his sing-song\nvoice:\n\n\"Send her the son for whom the Nightingale sings.\"\n\nThe Sultan turned away in disappointment, not understanding what the\nDervish meant, but one of his attendants plucked his sleeve and\nwhispered:\n\n\"The Nightingale sings for yonder beggar youth. Perhaps it is he the\nDervish means. Why not ask him if he will go to Flower o' the World in\nplace of your Youngest Son?\"\n\n[Illustration: _The Flower o' the World Asleep_]\n\nThe Sultan nodded, so the attendant called the beggar youth and the\nSultan asked him would he go to the Warrior Princess as the Youngest\nPrince.\n\n\"Allah alone knows where my Youngest Son is,\" the Sultan said, \"but he\nis just about your age and if you were washed and anointed and dressed\nin fitting garments you would not be unlike him.\"\n\nThe beggar youth said he would go but he insisted on going just as he\nwas. The Sultan begged him to go dressed as a prince or the Flower o'\nthe World might not receive him.\n\n\"No,\" said the youth, \"I shall go as a beggar or not at all. It is for\nthe Flower o' the World to know me whether or not I am the Sultan's\nYoungest Son and the man who stole from her the Nightingale Gisar.\"\n\nSo he went as he was to the tent of the Flower o' the World and her\nwarriors when they saw him coming said to the Princess:\n\n\"This Sultan mocks you and sends you a beggar when you demand his Third\nSon.\"\n\nBut the Flower o' the World ordered them all out and bade the beggar\nenter alone. She looked at him long and steadily and she saw through his\nrags that he was indeed a noble youth with a body made strong and\nbeautiful through exercise and toil and she thought to herself:\n\n\"It were not a hard fate to marry this youth!\"\n\nThen she questioned him:\n\n\"Are you the Sultan's Third Son?\"\n\n\"I am.\"\n\n\"Then why are you dressed as a beggar?\"\n\n\"Because I was set upon at the crossroads and beaten insensible and my\nclothes torn to rags. I was coming home with the Nightingale Gisar in my\nhands and I lay down at the roadside to rest while I awaited the coming\nof my brothers. When I awoke to consciousness the Nightingale and its\ngolden cage were gone. I came home to my father's city as a beggar and\nthere they told me that my brothers had come just before me bringing\nwith them the Nightingale and boasting of the perils they had been\nthrough and the dangers they had faced. But the Nightingale, they told\nme, hanging in its golden cage beside the fountain, was silent. Yet when\nI went to the mosque it always sang.\"\n\nThe Warrior Princess looked deep into his eyes and knew that he was\nspeaking truth. Her heart was touched with compassion at the wrong he\nhad suffered from his brothers, but she hid her feelings and questioned\nhim further.\n\n\"Then it was you,\" she said, \"who really took from me my glorious\nNightingale Gisar?\"\n\n\"Yes, Princess, it was. I crept past the lion and the wolf and the tiger\njust after midnight while they slept. I blew out the four candles at the\nhead of your bed and lighted those at the foot. The golden cage of the\nNightingale was hanging from a golden chain. Before I unfastened it I\nlooked at you once, as you lay sleeping, and dared not look a second\ntime.\"\n\n\"Why not?\" the Princess asked.\n\n\"Because, O Flower o' the World, you were so beautiful that I feared,\nwere I to look again, I should forget the Nightingale Gisar and cry out\nin ecstacy.\"\n\nThen the compassion in the Princess's heart changed to love and she knew\nfor a certainty that this was the man she was fated to wed.\n\nShe clapped her hands and when the guards came in she said to them:\n\n\"Call my warriors together that I may show them the Sultan's Youngest\nSon and the man who stole from me my glorious Nightingale Gisar and whom\nI am fated to wed.\"\n\nSo the warriors came in until they crowded the tent to its utmost. Then\nthe Princess stood up and took the Sultan's Youngest Son by the hand and\npresented him to the warriors and told them of his great bravery and\ncourage and of all the perils he had endured in order to get the\nNightingale Gisar for his father's mosque.\n\n\"He came to me now as a beggar,\" she said, \"but I knew him at once for\ntruth was in his mouth and courage in his eye. Behold, O warriors, your\nfuture lord!\"\n\nThen the warriors waved their swords and cried:\n\n\"Long live the Flower o' the World! Long live the Sultan's Youngest\nSon!\"\n\nAll the Princess's army when they heard the news raised such a mighty\nshout that the people in the Sultan's city heard and were filled with\ndread not knowing what it meant. But soon they knew and then they, too,\nwent mad with joy that what had threatened to be a war was turning to a\nwedding!\n\nThe Flower o' the World and her chief warriors and with them the\nYoungest Prince rode slowly to the city. The Prince was now dressed as\nbefitted his rank and the Sultan when he saw him recognized him at once.\n\n\"Allah be praised!\" he cried, \"my Youngest Son lives!\"\n\nThen they told him all--how it was this Prince and not the older\nbrothers who had found the Nightingale Gisar and how the older brothers\nhad robbed him of his prize and beaten him insensible.\n\nWhen the Sultan heard how wicked his older sons had been his grief for\ntheir death was assuaged.\n\n\"Allah be praised,\" he said, \"that I have at least one son who is\nworthy!\"\n\nAfter the betrothal ceremony the Sultan and the Youngest Prince went to\nthe mosque to pray. While they prayed the Nightingale sang so gloriously\nthat it seemed to them they were no longer on earth but in Paradise.\n\nWhen their prayers were finished and they were passing out, the Dervish\nraised his sing-song voice and said:\n\n\"Now indeed is the Sultan's Mosque the most beautiful Mosque in the\nWorld for the Nightingale Gisar sings beside the Fountain!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE GIRL IN THE CHEST\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of the Third Sister Who Was Brave and Good_\n\n\n\n\nTHE GIRL IN THE CHEST\n\n\nThere was once a horrible Vampire who took the form of a handsome young\nman and went to the house of an old woman who had three daughters and\npretended he wanted to marry the oldest.\n\n\"I live far from here,\" the Vampire said. \"I own my own farm and am\nwell-to-do and in marrying me your daughter would get a desirable\nhusband. Indeed, I am so well off that I don't have to ask any dowry.\"\n\nNow the old woman was so poor that she couldn't have given a penny of\ndowry. That was the only reason why all three of her daughters hadn't\nlong ago been married to youths of their own village. So when the\nstranger said he would require no dowry, the old woman whispered to her\noldest daughter:\n\n\"He seems to be all right. Perhaps you had better take him.\"\n\nThe poor girl accepted her mother's advice and that afternoon started\noff with the Vampire who said he would lead her home and marry her.\n\nThey walked a great distance and as evening came on they reached a wild\nghostly spot which frightened the girl half to death.\n\n\"This way, my dear,\" the Vampire said, pushing her into an opening in\nthe earth. \"We take this underground passage and soon we'll be home.\"\n\nThe passage led to a sort of cave which really was the Vampire's home.\n\n\"What an awful place!\" the poor girl cried in terror. \"Let me out!\"\n\n\"Let you out, indeed!\" the Vampire sneered, taking his own horrible\nshape and laughing cruelly. \"Here you are and here you stay and if you\ndon't do everything I tell you, I'll soon finish you! Here now, drink\nthis.\"\n\nHe offered the poor girl a pitcher and when she saw what was in it she\nnearly fainted with horror.\n\n\"No!\" she cried. \"I won't! I won't!\"\n\n\"If you don't drink this,\" the Vampire said, darkly, \"then I'll drink\nyou!\"\n\nAnd with that he killed her with no more feeling than if she were a fly.\n\nThen in a short time he went back to the old woman and said:\n\n\"Dear mother, my poor wife is ill and she begs that you send her your\nsecond daughter to nurse her. She asks for her sister night and day and\nI fear she will die unless she sees her.\"\n\nWhen the poor old mother heard this, she begged the second daughter to\ngo at once with the young man and nurse her sick sister.\n\nWell, the same thing happened to the second sister and in no time at all\nthe Vampire had killed her, too, to satisfy his awful thirst.\n\nThen he returned again to the old mother and this time he pretended that\nboth sisters were sick and were trying for the third sister to come and\nnurse them. So the poor old woman sent her Youngest Daughter away with\nthe Vampire.\n\nThe Youngest Sister when she found out the truth about the horrid\nVampire didn't sit down and weep helplessly as the others had done and\nwait for the Vampire to kill her, but she prayed God's help and then\ntried to find some way of escape.\n\nThere were doors in the cave which the Vampire told her were doors to\nclosets she must not enter. When the Vampire was out she opened these\ndoors and found that they all led into long underground passages.\n\n\"This is my one chance to get back to earth!\" the girl thought and\ncommending her undertaking to God she fled down one of the passages.\n\nYou may be sure the Vampire when he came back and found her gone fell\ninto a great rage. He went running wildly up and down the various\npassages and lost so much time searching the wrong passages that the\ngirl was able to make good her escape and reach the upper world in\nsafety.\n\nShe came out in a wood with no sign of human habitation anywhere in\nsight.\n\n\"What shall I do now?\" she thought. \"If I stay here alone and\nunprotected some wild beast or evil creature may get me.\"\n\nSo she knelt down and prayed God to give her a chest that she could lock\nfrom the inside with one of her own golden hairs so securely that no one\ncould force it open. God heard her prayer and presently behind some\nbushes she found just such a chest. When it grew dark and she was ready\nto go to bed, she crept into the chest, locked it with a hair, and slept\npeacefully knowing that nothing could harm her.\n\nSo she lived in the wood some time, eating berries and fruits, and\nsleeping safely in the chest.\n\nNow it so happened that the King's son one morning went hunting in this\nvery wood and caught a glimpse of the girl as she was gathering berries.\nHe thought he had never seen such a beautiful creature and instantly he\nfell in love with her. But when he reached the clump of bushes where he\nhad seen her, she was gone. He called his huntsmen together and told\nthem to search everywhere. They hunted for hours and all they could find\nwas a chest. They tried to open the chest to see what was in it but\ncouldn't.\n\n\"Waste no more time over it,\" the Prince said at last. \"Carry it home to\nthe palace as it is and have it placed in my chamber.\"\n\nThe huntsmen did this and a few hours later when the girl peeped out of\nher chest she found herself alone in the Prince's chamber. His supper\nwas standing on a table in readiness for his coming. The girl ate the\nsupper and was safely back in her chest before he arrived. When he did\ncome the Prince was amazed to see empty plates and called the servants\nto know who had eaten his supper. The servants were as much surprised as\nthe Prince and declared that no one had entered the chamber.\n\nThe same thing happened the next day and the following day the Prince\nhad one of his servants hide behind the curtains and watch to find out\nif possible how the food disappeared.\n\nThe story the servant had to tell of what he saw was so thrilling that\nthe Prince could scarcely wait for the next day when he himself hid\nbehind the curtains and watched.\n\nThe serving people put the food on the table and retired and presently\nthe lid of the chest opened and the Prince saw the beautiful maiden of\nthe wood step out. When she sat down at the table the Prince slipped up\nbehind her and caught her in his arms.\n\n\"You lovely creature!\" he said, \"I'm not going to let you escape me\nagain!\"\n\nAt first the girl was greatly frightened but the Prince reassured her,\ntelling her that he loved her dearly and only wanted to make her his\nwife.\n\nHe led her at once to the King, his father, and the girl was so modest\nand lovely that the King soon agreed to the marriage.\n\n[Illustration: _The Chest Opened and the Prince Saw the Beautiful\nMaiden_]\n\nEverybody in court was delighted--everybody, that is, but the\nChamberlain who had had hopes of marrying his own daughter to the\nPrince. His daughter was an ugly ill-tempered girl and the Prince had\nnever even looked at her. The Chamberlain was sure, however, that with a\nlittle more time he could arrange the match to his liking. So the\nappearance of this beautiful girl who came from Heaven knows where threw\nhim into a fearful rage and he decided to do away with her at any cost.\nNow he had in his employ a great burly Blackamoor. He called this\nfellow to him and he told him that he must kidnap the girl at once and\nkill her. The Blackamoor who was accustomed to do such deeds for the\nChamberlain nodded and said he would.\n\nSo when the palace was quiet that night he stole to the bedchamber where\nthe girl was lying asleep, threw a great robe over her head to stifle\nher cries, and carried her off. She fainted away from fright and the\nBlackamoor thinking her dead tossed her into a field of nettles in the\noutskirts of the town.\n\nNow, as you can imagine, in the morning there was a great uproar in the\npalace when it was discovered that the Prince's beautiful bride-to-be\nhad disappeared. The Prince was utterly grief-stricken and refused to\neat. The King and all the ladies of the court tried their best to\ncomfort him but he turned away from them declaring he would die if his\nbride were not restored to him.\n\nThe rascally Chamberlain put his handkerchief to his eyes and pretended\nto weep he was so affected by the sight of the Prince's grief.\n\n\"My dear boy,\" he said, \"I would that I could find this maiden for you!\nIt breaks my heart to see you sad and unhappy! But I'm sorry to tell you\nthat I hear she was a Vila and not a human maiden at all. You know how\nmysteriously she came, and now she's gone just as mysteriously. So put\nthe thought of her out of your mind and I'm sure you'll soon find a\nhuman maiden who is worthy of your love. Come here, my daughter, and\ntell the Prince how sorry you are that he is in grief.\"\n\nBut the sight of the Chamberlain's ugly daughter only made the Prince\nlong the more for the beautiful girl who was gone.\n\nShe meantime had found refuge in the hut of an old woman who had heard\nher groan in the early dawn when she lay among the nettles and had taken\ncompassion on her.\n\n\"You may stay with me until you're well,\" the old woman said.\n\nThe girl was young and healthy and in a day or two had recovered the ill\ntreatment she had suffered at the hands of the Blackamoor.\n\n\"Won't you let me live with you awhile, granny?\" she said to the old\nwoman. \"I'll cook and scrub and work and you won't have to regret the\nlittle I eat.\"\n\n\"Can you cook? Because if you can perhaps you know a dish that would\ntempt the appetite of our poor young Prince,\" the old woman said. \"You\nknow the poor boy has had a terrible disappointment in love and he\nrefuses to eat. The heralds were out this morning proclaiming that the\nKing would richly reward any one who could prepare a dish that would\ntempt the Prince's appetite.\"\n\n\"Granny!\" the girl said, \"I know a wonderful way to prepare beans! Let\nme cook a dish of beans and do you carry them to the palace.\"\n\nSo the girl cooked the beans and placed them prettily in a dish and on\none side of the dish she put a tiny little ringlet of her own golden\nhair.\n\n\"If he sees the hair,\" she thought to herself, \"he'll know the beans are\nfrom me.\"\n\nAnd that's exactly what happened. To please his father the Prince had\nconsented to look at every dish as it came. He had already looked at\nhundreds of them before the old woman arrived and turned away from them\nall. Then the old woman came. As she passed before the Prince, she\nlifted the cover of the dish, held it towards him, and curtsied. The\nPrince was just about to turn away when he saw the tiny ringlet of hair.\n\n\"Oh!\" he said. \"Wait a minute! Those beans look good!\"\n\nTo the King's delight he took the dish out of the old woman's hand,\nexamined it carefully, and when no one was looking slipped the ringlet\ninto his pocket. Then he ate the beans--every last one of them!\n\nThe King gave the old woman some golden ducats and begged her to prepare\nanother dish for the Prince on the morrow.\n\nSo the next day the girl again sent a tiny ringlet of her hair on the\nside of the plate and again the Prince after scorning all the other food\noffered him took the old woman's dish and ate it clean.\n\nOn the third day the Prince engaged the old woman in conversation.\n\n\"Where do you live, granny?\"\n\n\"In a little tumble-down house beside the nettles,\" she told him.\n\n\"Do you live alone?\"\n\n\"Just now,\" the old woman said, \"I have a dear girl living with me. I\nfound her one morning lying in the nettles where some ruffians had left\nher for dead. She's a good girl and she scrubs and bakes and cooks for\nme and lets me rest my poor old bones.\"\n\nNow the Prince knew what he wanted to know.\n\n\"Granny,\" he said, \"to-morrow's Sunday. Now I want you to stay home in\nthe afternoon because I'm coming to see you.\"\n\nIn great excitement the old woman hurried home and told the girl that\nthe Prince was coming to see them on Sunday afternoon.\n\n\"He mustn't see me!\" the girl said. \"I'll hide in the bread trough under\na cloth and if he goes looking for me you tell him that I've gone out.\"\n\n\"Foolish child!\" the old woman said. \"Why should you hide from a\nhandsome young man like the Prince?\"\n\nBut the girl insisted and at last when Sunday afternoon came the old\nwoman was forced to let her lie down in the bread trough and cover her\nwith a cloth.\n\nThe Prince arrived and when he found the old woman there alone he was\nmightily disappointed.\n\n\"Where's that girl who lives with you?\" he asked.\n\n\"She's gone out,\" the old woman said.\n\n\"Then I think I'll wait till she comes back.\"\n\nThis made the old woman feel nervous.\n\n\"But, my Prince, I don't know when she's coming back.\"\n\nJust then the Prince thought he saw something move in the bread trough.\n\n\"What's that lumpy thing in the bread trough, granny?\"\n\n\"That? Oh, that's just dough that's rising, my Prince. I'm baking\nto-day.\"\n\n\"Then make me a loaf, granny. I'll wait for it until it rises and until\nyou bake it. Then I'll eat it hot out of the oven.\"\n\nWhat was the old woman to say to that? She fussed and fidgeted and\nthought again what a foolish young girl that was to be hiding in the\nbread trough when there was a handsome young Prince in the room.\n\n\"I don't know why that dough doesn't rise,\" she remarked at last.\n\n\"Perhaps there's something the matter with it,\" the Prince said.\n\nBefore the old woman could stop him, he jumped up, tossed the cloth\naside, and there was his lovely bride!\n\n\"Why are you hiding from me?\" he asked as he lifted her up and kissed\nher tenderly.\n\n\"Because I knew if you really loved me you would find me,\" she said.\n\n\"Now that I have found you,\" the Prince declared, \"I shall never let you\nleave me again.\"\n\nThen the girl told the Prince about the wicked Chamberlain and the\nBlackamoor and it was all she and the old woman could do to keep the\nPrince from drawing his sword and rushing out instantly to kill both of\nthem.\n\nThe old woman begged the Prince to take the girl secretly to the King\nand have the King hear her story, and then let him pass judgment on the\nChamberlain according to the laws of the land. At last the Prince agreed\nto this.\n\nSo they covered the girl's head with a veil and took her to the King.\nWhen the King heard her story he called the court together at once and\ntold them the outrage that had been committed against his son's promised\nbride. He commanded that the murderous Blackamoor be executed the next\nday and he decreed that the Chamberlain and his wicked daughter be\nstripped of their lands and riches and sent into exile.\n\nLet us hope that exile taught them the evil of their ways and made them\nrepent.\n\nAs for the girl, she married the Prince and they lived together in great\nhappiness. And she deserved to be happy, too, for she was a brave girl\nand a good girl and God loves people who are brave and good and blesses\nthem.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE WONDERFUL HAIR\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of a Poor Man Who Dreamed of an Angel_\n\n\n\n\nTHE WONDERFUL HAIR\n\n\nThere was once a poor man who had so many children that he was at his\nwit's end how to feed them all and clothe them.\n\n\"Unless something turns up soon,\" he thought to himself, \"we shall all\nstarve to death. Poor youngsters--I'm almost tempted to kill them with\nmy own hands to save them from suffering the pangs of hunger!\"\n\nThat night before he went to sleep he prayed God to give him help. God\nheard his prayer and sent an angel to him in a dream.\n\nThe angel said to him:\n\n\"To-morrow morning when you wake, put your hand under your pillow and\nyou will find a mirror, a red handkerchief, and an embroidered scarf.\nWithout saying a word to any one hide these things in your shirt and go\nout to the woods that lie beyond the third hill from the village. There\nyou will find a brook. Follow it until you come to a beautiful maiden\nwho is bathing in its waters. You will know her from the great masses of\ngolden hair that fall down over her shoulders. She will speak to you\nbut do you be careful not to answer. If you say a word to her she will\nbe able to bewitch you. She will hold out a comb to you and ask you to\ncomb her hair. Take the comb and do as she asks. Then part her back hair\ncarefully and you will see one hair that is coarser than the others and\nas red as blood. Wrap this firmly around one of your fingers and jerk it\nout. Then flee as fast as you can. She will pursue you and each time as\nshe is about to overtake you drop first the embroidered scarf, then the\nred handkerchief, and last the mirror. If you reach the hill nearest\nyour own village you are safe for she can pursue you no farther. Take\ngood care of the single hair for it great value and you can sell it for\nmany golden ducats.\"\n\nIn the morning when the poor man awoke and put his hand under his pillow\nhe found the mirror and the handkerchief and the scarf just as the angel\nhad said he would. So he hid them carefully in his shirt and without\ntelling any one where he was going he went to the woods beyond the third\nhill from the village. Here he found the brook and followed it until he\ncame to a pool where he saw a lovely maiden bathing.\n\n\"Good day to you!\" she said politely.\n\nThe poor man remembering the angel's warning made no answer.\n\n[Illustration: _The Mirror, the Handkerchief, and the Embroidered\nScarf_]\n\nThe maiden held out a golden comb.\n\n\"Please comb my hair for me, won't you?\"\n\nThe man nodded and took the comb. Then he parted the long tresses behind\nand searched here and there and everywhere until he found the one hair\nthat was blood-red in color and coarser than the others. He twisted this\nfirmly around his finger, jerked it quickly out, and fled.\n\n\"Oh!\" cried the maiden. \"What are you doing? Give me back my one red\nhair!\"\n\nShe jumped to her feet and ran swiftly after him. As she came close to\nhim, he dropped behind him the embroidered scarf. She stooped and picked\nit up and examined it awhile. Then she saw the man was escaping, so she\ntossed the scarf aside and again ran after him. This time he dropped the\nred handkerchief. Its bright color caught the maiden's eye and she\npicked it up and lost a few more minutes admiring it while the man raced\non. Then the maiden remembered him, threw away the handkerchief, and\nstarted off again in pursuit.\n\nThis time the man dropped the mirror and the maiden who of course was a\nVila and had never seen a mirror before picked it up and looked at it\nand when she saw the lovely reflection of herself she was so amazed that\nshe kept on looking and looking. She was still looking in it and still\nadmiring her own beauty when the man reached the third hill beyond which\nthe maiden couldn't follow him.\n\nSo the poor man got home with the hair safely wound about his finger.\n\n\"It must be of great value,\" he thought to himself. \"I'll take it to the\ncity and offer it for sale there.\"\n\nSo the next day he went to the city and went about offering his\nwonderful hair to the merchants.\n\n\"What's so wonderful about it?\" they asked him.\n\n\"I don't know, but I do know it's of great value,\" he told them.\n\n\"Well,\" said one of them, \"I'll give you one golden ducat for it.\"\n\nHe was a shrewd buyer and the others hearing his bid of one golden ducat\ndecided that he must know that the hair was of much greater value. So\nthey began to outbid him until the price offered the poor man reached\none hundred golden ducats. But the poor man insisted that this was not\nenough.\n\n\"One hundred golden ducats not enough for one red hair!\" cried the\nmerchants.\n\nThey pretended to be disgusted that any one would refuse such a price\nfor one red hair, but in reality they were all firmly convinced by this\ntime that it was a magic hair and probably worth any amount of money in\nthe world.\n\nThe whole city became excited over the wonderful hair for which all the\nmerchants were bidding and for a time nothing else was talked about. The\nmatter was reported to the Tsar and at once he said that he himself\nwould buy the hair for one thousand golden ducats.\n\nOne thousand golden ducats! After that there was no danger of the poor\nman's many children dying of starvation.\n\nAnd what do you suppose the Tsar did with the hair? He had it split open\nvery carefully and inside he found a scroll of great importance to\nmankind for on it were written many wonderful secrets of nature.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE BEST WISH\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of Three Brothers and an Angel_\n\n\n\n\nTHE BEST WISH\n\n\nThere were once three brothers whose only possession was a pear tree.\nThey took turns guarding it. That is to say while two of them went to\nwork the third stayed at home to see that no harm came to the pear tree.\n\nNow it happened that an Angel from heaven was sent down to test the\nhearts of the three brothers. The Angel took the form of a beggar and\napproaching the pear tree on a day when the oldest brother was guarding\nit, he held out his hand and said:\n\n\"In heaven's name, brother, give me a ripe pear.\"\n\nThe oldest brother at once handed him a pear, saying:\n\n\"This one I can give you because it is mine, but none of the others\nbecause they belong to my brothers.\"\n\nThe Angel thanked him and departed.\n\nThe next day when the second brother was on guard he returned in the\nsame guise and again begged the charity of a ripe pear.\n\n\"Take this one,\" the second brother said. \"It is mine and I can give it\naway. I can't give away any of the others because they belong to my\nbrothers.\"\n\nThe Angel thanked the second brother and departed.\n\nThe third day he had exactly the same experience with the youngest\nbrother.\n\nOn the following day the Angel, in the guise of a monk, came to the\nbrothers' house very early while they were still all at home.\n\n\"My sons,\" he said, \"come with me and perhaps I can find you something\nbetter to do than guard a single pear tree.\"\n\nThe brothers agreed and they all started out together. After walking\nsome time they came to the banks of a broad deep river.\n\n\"My son,\" the Angel said, addressing the oldest brother, \"if I were to\ngrant you one wish, what you ask?\"\n\n\"I'd be happy,\" the oldest brother said, \"if all this water was turned\ninto wine and belonged to me.\"\n\n[Illustration: _The Angel Took the Form of a Beggar_]\n\nThe Angel lifted his staff and made the sign of the cross and lo! the\nwater became wine from great wine-presses. At once numbers of casks\nappeared and men filling them and rolling them about. A huge industry\nsprang up with sheds and storehouses and wagons and men running\nhither and thither and addressing the oldest brother respectfully as\n\"Master!\"\n\n\"You have your wish,\" the Angel said. \"See that you do not forget God's\npoor now that you are rich. Farewell.\"\n\nSo they left the oldest brother in the midst of his wine and went on\nfarther until they came to a broad field where flocks of pigeons were\nfeeding.\n\n\"If I were to grant you one wish,\" the Angel said to the second brother,\n\"what would you ask?\"\n\n\"I'd be happy, father, if all the pigeons in this field were turned to\nsheep and belonged to me.\"\n\nThe Angel lifted his staff, made the sign of the cross, and lo! the\nfield was covered with sheep. Sheds appeared and houses and women, some\nof them milking the ewes and others skimming the milk and making\ncheeses. In one place men were busy preparing meat for the market and in\nanother cleaning wool. And all of them as they came and went spoke\nrespectfully to the second brother and called him, \"Master!\"\n\n\"You have your wish,\" the Angel said. \"Stay here and enjoy prosperity\nand see that you do not forget God's poor!\"\n\nThen he and the youngest brother went on their way.\n\n\"Now, my son,\" the Angel said, \"you, too, may make one wish.\"\n\n\"I want but one thing, father. I pray heaven to grant me a truly pious\nwife. That is my only wish.\"\n\n\"A truly pious wife!\" the Angel cried. \"My boy, you have asked the\nhardest thing of all! Why, there are only three truly pious women in all\nthe world! Two of them are already married and the third is a princess\nwho is being sought in marriage at this very moment by two kings!\nHowever, your brothers have received their wishes and you must have\nyours, too. Let us go at once to the father of this virtuous princess\nand present your suit.\"\n\nSo just as they were they trudged to the city where the princess lived\nand presented themselves at the palace looking shabby and\ntravel-stained.\n\nThe king received them and when he heard their mission he looked at them\nin amazement.\n\n\"This makes three suitors for my daughter's hand! Two kings and now this\nyoung man all on the same day! How am I going to decide among them?\"\n\n\"Let heaven decide!\" the Angel said. \"Cut three branches of grape-vine\nand let the princess mark each branch with the name of a different\nsuitor. Then let her plant the three branches to-night in the garden\nand to-morrow do you give her in marriage to the man whose branch has\nblossomed during the night and by morning is covered with ripe clusters\nof grapes.\"\n\nThe king and the two other suitors agreed to this and the princess named\nand planted three branches of grape-vine. In the morning two of the\nbranches were bare and dry, but the third, the one which was marked with\nthe name of the youngest brother, was covered with green leaves and ripe\nclusters of grapes. The king accepted heaven's ruling and at once led\nhis daughter to church where he had her married to the stranger and sent\nher off with his blessing.\n\nThe Angel led the young couple to a forest and left them there.\n\nA year went by and the Angel was sent back to earth to see how the three\nbrothers were faring. Assuming the form of an old beggar, he went to the\noldest brother who was busy among his wine-presses and begged the\ncharity of a cup of wine.\n\n\"Be off with you, you old vagabond!\" the oldest brother shouted angrily.\n\"If I gave a cup of wine to every beggar that comes along I'd soon be a\nbeggar myself!\"\n\nThe Angel lifted his staff, made the sign of the cross, and lo! the\nwine and all the wine-presses disappeared and in their place flowed a\nbroad deep river.\n\n\"In your prosperity you have forgotten God's poor,\" the Angel said. \"Go\nback to your pear tree.\"\n\nThen the Angel went to the second brother who was busy in his dairy.\n\n\"Brother,\" the Angel said, \"in heaven's name, I pray you, give me a\nmorsel of cheese.\"\n\n\"A morsel of cheese, you lazy good-for-nothing!\" the second brother\ncried. \"Be off with you or I'll call the dogs!\"\n\nThe Angel lifted his staff, made the sign of the cross, and lo! the\nsheep and the dairy and all the busy laborers disappeared and he and the\nsecond brother were standing there alone in a field where flocks of\npigeons were feeding.\n\n\"In your prosperity you have forgotten God's poor,\" the Angel said. \"Go\nback to your pear tree!\"\n\nThen the Angel made his way to the forest where he had left the youngest\nbrother and his wife. He found them in great poverty living in a mean\nlittle hut.\n\n\"God be with you!\" said the Angel still in the guise of an old beggar.\n\"I pray you in heaven's name give me shelter for the night and a bite of\nsupper.\"\n\n\"We are poor ourselves,\" the youngest brother said.\n\n\"But come in, you are welcome to share what we have.\"\n\nThey put the old beggar to rest at the most comfortable place beside the\nfire and the wife set three places for the evening meal. They were so\npoor that the loaf that was baking in the oven was not made of grain\nground at the mill but of pounded bark gathered from the trees.\n\n\"Alas,\" the wife murmured to herself, \"it shames me that we have no real\nbread to put before our guest.\"\n\nImagine then her surprise when she opened the oven and saw a browned\nloaf of wheaten bread.\n\n\"God be praised!\" she cried.\n\nShe drew a pitcher of water at the spring but when she began pouring it\ninto the cups she found to her joy that it was changed to wine.\n\n\"In your happiness,\" the Angel said, \"you have not forgotten God's poor\nand God will reward you!\"\n\nHe raised his staff, made the sign of the cross, and lo! the mean little\nhut disappeared and in its place arose a stately palace full of riches\nand beautiful things. Servants passed hither and thither and addressed\nthe poor man respectfully as \"My lord!\" and his wife as \"My lady!\"\n\nThe old beggar arose and as he went he blessed them both, saying:\n\n\"God gives you these riches and they will be yours to enjoy so long as\nyou share them with others.\"\n\nThey must have remembered the Angel's words for all their lives long\nthey were happy and prosperous.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE VILAS' SPRING\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of the Brother Who Knew That Good Was Stronger Than Evil_\n\n\n\n\nTHE VILAS' SPRING\n\n\nThere was once a rich man who had two sons. The older son was\noverbearing, greedy, and covetous. He was dishonest, too, and thought\nnothing of taking things that belonged to others. The younger brother\nwas gentle and kind. He was always ready to share what he had and he was\nnever known to cheat or to steal.\n\n\"He's little better than a fool!\" the older brother used to say of him\nscornfully.\n\nWhen the brothers grew to manhood the old father died leaving directions\nthat they divide his wealth between them, share and share alike.\n\n\"Nonsense!\" the older brother said. \"That fool would only squander his\ninheritance! To every poor beggar that comes along he'd give an alms\nuntil soon my poor father's savings would be all gone! No! I'll give him\nthree golden ducats and a horse and tell him to get out and if he makes\na fuss I won't give him that much!\"\n\nSo he said to his younger brother:\n\n\"You're a fool and you oughtn't to have a penny from our father's\nestate. However, I'll give you three golden ducats and a horse on\ncondition that you clear out and never come back.\"\n\n\"Brother,\" the younger one said quietly, \"you are doing me a wrong.\"\n\n\"What if I am?\" sneered the older. \"Wrong is stronger than Right just as\nI am stronger than you. Be off with you now or I'll take from you even\nthese three golden ducats and the horse!\"\n\nWithout another word the younger brother mounted the horse and rode\naway.\n\nTime went by and at last the brothers chanced to meet on the highway.\n\n\"God bless you, brother!\" the younger one said.\n\n\"Don't you go God-blessing me, you fool!\" the older one shouted. \"It\nisn't God who is powerful in this world but the Devil!\"\n\n\"No, brother,\" the other said, \"you are wrong. God is stronger than the\nDevil just as Good is stronger than Evil.\"\n\n\"Are you sure of that?\"\n\n\"Yes, brother, I'm sure.\"\n\n\"Well, then, let us make a wager. I'll wager you a golden ducat that\nEvil is stronger than Good and we'll let the first man we meet on this\nroad decide which of us is right. Do you agree?\"\n\n\"Yes, brother, I agree.\"\n\nThey rode a short distance and overtook a man who seemed to be a monk.\nHe wasn't really a monk but the Devil himself disguised in the habit of\na monk. The older brother put the case to him and the false monk at once\nanswered:\n\n\"That's an easy question to decide. Of course Evil is stronger than Good\nin this world.\"\n\nWithout a word the younger brother took out one of his golden ducats and\nhanded it over.\n\n\"Now,\" sneered the older one, \"are you convinced?\"\n\n\"No, brother, I am not. No matter what this monk says I know that Good\nis stronger than Evil.\"\n\n\"You do, do you? Then suppose we repeat the wager and ask the next man\nwe meet to decide between us.\"\n\n\"Very well, brother, I'm willing.\"\n\nThe next man they overtook looked like an old farmer, but in reality he\nwas the Devil again who had taken the guise of a farmer. They put the\nquestion to him and of course the Devil made the same answer:\n\n\"Evil is stronger than Good in this world.\"\n\nSo again the younger brother paid his wager but insisted that he still\nbelieved Good to be stronger than Evil.\n\n\"Then we'll make a third wager,\" the other said.\n\nWith the Devil's help the older brother won the third golden ducat which\nwas all the money the younger one had. Then the older brother suggested\nthat they wager their horses and the Devil, disguised in another form,\nagain acted as umpire and the younger one of course lost his horse.\n\n\"Now I have nothing more to lose,\" he said, \"but I am still so sure that\nGood is stronger than Evil that I am willing to wager the very eyes out\nof my head!\"\n\n\"The more fool you!\" the other one cried brutally.\n\nWithout another word he knocked his younger brother down and gouged out\nhis eyes.\n\n\"Now let God take care of you if He can! As for me I put my trust in the\nDevil!\"\n\n\"May God forgive you for speaking so!\" the younger one said.\n\n\"I don't care whether He does or not! Nothing can harm me! I'm strong\nand I'm rich and I know how to take care of myself. As for you, you poor\nblind beggar, is there anything you would like me to do for you before I\nride away?\"\n\n[Illustration: _Vilas at Play_]\n\n\"All I ask of you, brother, is that you lead me to the spring that is\nunder the fir tree not far from here. There I can bathe my wounds and\nsit in the shade.\"\n\n\"I'll do that much for you,\" the older one said, taking the blinded man\nby the hand. \"For the rest, God will have to take care of you.\"\n\nWith that he led him over to the fir tree and left him. The blinded man\ngroped his way to the spring and bathed his wounds, then sat down under\nthe tree and prayed God for help and protection.\n\nWhen night came he fell asleep and he slept until midnight when he was\nawakened by the sound of voices at the spring. A company of Vilas were\nbathing and playing as they bathed. He was blind, as you remember, so he\ncouldn't see their beautiful forms but he knew that they must be Vilas\nfrom their voices which were as sweet as gurgling waters and murmuring\ntreetops. Human voices are never half so lovely. Yes, they must be Vilas\nfrom the mountains and the woods.\n\n\"Ho, sisters!\" cried one of them, \"if only men knew that we bathed in\nthis spring, they could come to-morrow and be healed in its water--the\nmaimed and the halt and blind! To-morrow this water would heal even the\nking's daughter who is afflicted with leprosy!\"\n\nWhen they were gone the blind man crept down to the spring and bathed\nhis face. At the first touch of the healing water his wounds closed and\nhis sight was restored. With a heart full of gratitude he knelt down and\nthanked God for the miracle. Then when morning came he filled a vessel\nwith the precious water and hurried to the king's palace.\n\n\"Tell the king,\" he said to the guards, \"that I have come to heal his\ndaughter.\"\n\nThe king admitted him at once to the princess's chamber and said to him:\n\n\"If you succeed in healing the princess you shall have her in marriage\nand in addition I shall make you heir to my kingdom.\"\n\nThe moment the princess was bathed in the healing water she, too, was\nrestored to health and at once the proclamation was sent forth that the\nprincess was recovered and was soon to marry the man who had cured her.\n\nNow when the evil older brother heard who this fortunate man was, he\ncould scarcely contain himself for rage and envy.\n\n\"How did that fool get back his sight?\" he asked himself. \"What magic\nsecret did he discover that enabled him to heal the princess of leprosy?\nWhatever it was he got it under the fir tree for where else could he\nhave got it? I've a good mind to go to the fir tree myself to-night and\nsee what happens.\"\n\nThe more he thought about it the surer he became that if he went to the\nfir tree in exactly the same condition as his brother he, too, would\nhave some wonderful good fortune. So when night came he seated himself\nunder the tree, gouged out his eyes with a knife, and then waited to see\nwhat would happen. At midnight he heard the Vilas at the spring but\ntheir voices were not sweet but shrill and angry.\n\n\"Sisters,\" they cried to each other, \"have you heard? The princess is\nhealed of leprosy and it was with the water of this, our spring! Who has\nspied on us?\"\n\n\"While we were talking last night,\" said one, \"some man may have been\nhiding under the fir tree.\"\n\n\"Let us see if there is any one there to-night!\" cried another.\n\nWith that they all rushed to the fir tree and took the man they found\nsitting there and in a fury tore him to pieces as though he were a bit\nof old cloth. So that was the end of the wicked older brother. And you\nwill notice that in his hour of need his friend, the Devil, was not on\nhand to help him.\n\nSo after all it was the younger brother who finally inherited all his\nfather's wealth. In addition he married the princess and was made heir\nto the kingdom. So you see Good is stronger than Evil in this world.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nLORD AND MASTER\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of the Man Who Understood the Language of the Animals_\n\n\n\n\nLORD AND MASTER\n\n\nThere was once a young shepherd, an honest industrious fellow, who\npassed most of his time in the hills looking after his master's flocks.\nOne afternoon he happened upon a bush which some gipsies had set a-fire.\nAs he stopped to watch it he heard a strange hissing, whistling sound.\nHe went as close as he could and in the center of the bush which the\nflames had not yet reached he saw a snake. It was writhing and trembling\nin fear.\n\n\"Help me, brother!\" the snake said. \"Help me and I will reward you\nrichly! I swear I will!\"\n\nThe shepherd put the end of his crook over the flames and the snake\ncrawled up the crook, up the shepherd's arm, and wound itself about his\nneck.\n\nIt was now the shepherd's turn to be frightened.\n\n\"What! Will you kill me as a reward for my kindness?\"\n\n\"Nay,\" the snake said. \"Do not be afraid. I will not injure you. Do as I\ntell you and you will have nothing to regret. My father is the Tsar of\nthe Snakes. Take me to him and he will reward you for rescuing me.\"\n\n\"But I can't leave my flocks,\" the shepherd said.\n\n\"Have no fear about your flocks. Nothing will happen to them in your\nabsence.\"\n\n\"But I don't know where your father, the Tsar of the Snakes, lives,\" the\nshepherd protested.\n\n\"I'll show you,\" the snake said. \"I'll point out the direction with my\ntail.\"\n\nSo in spite of his misgivings the shepherd at last agreed to the snake's\nsuggestion and, leaving his sheep in God's care, started up the\nmountainside in the direction which the snake pointed out with his tail.\n\nThey reached finally a sort of pocket in the hills which was sandy and\nrocky and exposed to the full force of the sun. The snake directed the\nshepherd to the entrance of a cave which had a huge door composed\nentirely of living snakes closely wound together. The shepherd's snake\nsaid something in his breathy whistling voice and the door pulled itself\napart and allowed the shepherd to enter the cave.\n\n\"Now,\" whispered the snake, \"when my father asks you what you want, tell\nhim you want the gift of understanding the language of the animals. He\nwill try to give you something else but don't you accept anything\nelse.\"\n\nThe Tsar of the Snakes was a huge creature clothed in a gorgeous skin of\nred and yellow and black. They found him reclining on a golden table\nwith a crown of precious jewels on his head.\n\n\"My son!\" he cried, when he saw the snake that was still wound about the\nshepherd's neck, \"where have you been? We have been grieving for you\nthinking you had met some misfortune.\"\n\n\"But for this shepherd, my father,\" the snake said, \"I should have been\nburned to death. He rescued me.\"\n\nThen he told the Tsar of the Snakes the whole story. The Tsar of the\nSnakes listened carefully and when the Snake Prince was finished he\nturned to the shepherd and said:\n\n\"Sir, I am deeply indebted to you for saving my son's life. Ask of me\nanything I can grant and it is yours.\"\n\n\"Give me then,\" the shepherd said, \"the gift of understanding the\nlanguage of the animals.\"\n\n\"Not that!\" the Tsar of the Snakes cried. \"It is too dangerous a gift!\nIf ever you confessed to some other human being that you had this gift\nand repeated what some animal said you would die that instant. Ask\nsomething else--anything else!\"\n\n\"No,\" the shepherd insisted. \"Give me that or nothing!\"\n\nWhen the Tsar of the Snakes saw that the shepherd was not to be\ndissuaded, he said:\n\n\"Very well, then. What must be, must be. Come now very close to me and\nput your mouth against my mouth. Do you breathe three times into my\nmouth and I shall breathe three times into your mouth. Then you will\nunderstand the language of the animals.\"\n\nSo the shepherd put his mouth close to the mouth of the Tsar of the\nSnakes and breathed into it three times. Then the Tsar of the Snakes\nbreathed into the shepherd's mouth three times.\n\n\"Now you will understand the language of all animals,\" the Tsar of the\nSnakes said. \"It is a dangerous gift but if you remember my warning it\nmay bring you great prosperity. Farewell.\"\n\nSo the shepherd went back to his flocks and lay down under a fir tree to\nrest. Presently he wondered whether he hadn't been asleep and dreamed\nabout the burning bush and the snake and the Tsar of the Snakes.\n\n\"It can't be real!\" he said to himself. \"How can I or any man understand\nthe language of the animals!\"\n\n[Illustration: _The Tsar of the Snakes Listened Carefully_]\n\nJust then two ravens alighted on the tree above his head.\n\n\"Caw! Caw!\" said one of them. \"Wouldn't that shepherd be surprised if he\nknew he was lying on some buried treasure!\"\n\n\"Caw! Caw!\" laughed the other. \"He'll never know for he's only one of\nthose poor stupid human beings who can't understand a word we say!\"\n\nThe ravens flew off and the shepherd sat up and rubbed his eyes to make\nsure he was awake.\n\n\"Am I dreaming again?\" he asked himself, \"or did I really understand\nthem? Well, I'll soon find out. To-morrow I'll bring a spade and then if\nthere's any treasure buried under this tree I won't be long in digging\nit up.\"\n\nHe marked the spot where he had been lying when the ravens spoke and the\nnext day came back and dug. Three feet below the surface his spade hit\nsomething that proved to be a big iron pot chock-full of golden ducats.\n\nHe carried the treasure to his master and his master was so pleased at\nhis honesty that he gave him half of it.\n\nSo now the shepherd was able to set up in life for himself. He bought a\nfarm and married and \"settled down\" as the saying is. The years went by\nand he grew prosperous and rich.\n\nOne Christmas Eve he said to his wife:\n\n\"I'm thinking, wife, of my youth when I was a shepherd and how lonely it\nwas at times like this when other folk were at home seated about the\nfire and making merry. Let us give our shepherds out on the hills a\nsurprise to-night. We can take them meats and wine and other food and\nthen I'll go out and guard the sheep while you serve them a fine\nChristmas supper.\"\n\nHis wife agreed and they mounted their horses and rode out to the hills\ntaking with them great hampers of food and wine. The wife entertained\nthe shepherds in their hut with a big jolly supper and the master stayed\noutside all night with the dogs guarding the sheep.\n\nAt midnight some wolves came prowling around the flocks.\n\n\"See here,\" they said to the dogs, \"if you let us in we'll kill the\nsheep and then we'll divide the carcasses with you.\"\n\nThe dogs for the most part were young and thoughtless and ready enough\nto fall in with the wolves' suggestion. But there was one old sheepdog\nthat nothing could tempt.\n\n\"I've only a few teeth left!\" he growled, \"but those few are still\nsound and let any wolf come a step nearer and I'll tear him to pieces!\"\n\nAll night long that one old sheepdog stood on guard faithful to duty.\n\nIn the morning the master ordered the shepherds to kill the young dogs\nand train in new ones.\n\nThe shepherds were surprised.\n\n\"The master's a clever one!\" they told each other. \"Just one night and\nhe found out how worthless those young dogs were!\"\n\nAs the farmer and his wife were riding home, the farmer's horse ran on\nahead.\n\n\"Not so fast!\" begged the mare that the wife was riding. \"Have pity on\nme and go more slowly. You have only the master to carry while I'm all\nladen down with hampers and empty jugs and I don't know what and with a\nmistress that's twice as big as she was a few months ago!\"\n\nThe farmer when he heard the mare's complaint burst out laughing.\n\n\"What are you laughing at?\" his wife asked sharply.\n\n\"Nothing,\" the farmer said.\n\n\"You're laughing at me!\" the wife declared, \"I know you are, just\nbecause I'm so big that I'm awkward in the saddle!\"\n\n\"No, my dear, I'm not laughing at you, truly I'm not.\"\n\n\"You are! I know you are and I don't think it's kind of you, either!\"\nAnd the wife burst into tears.\n\n\"Now, my dear,\" the husband said, soothingly, \"be sensible and believe\nme when I tell you I was not laughing at you.\"\n\n\"Then what were you laughing at?\"\n\n\"I can't tell you because if I did tell you then I should die the next\nmoment.\"\n\n\"Die the next moment!\" the wife said. \"Stuff and nonsense! It must be a\nstrange thing indeed if a man can't tell his own wife for fear he'll die\nthe next moment!\"\n\nThe more she thought about it the more enraged she became and also the\nmore curious.\n\n\"If you really loved me, you'd tell me!\" she wept.\n\nAll the way home she kept on worrying her husband and nagging at him\nuntil at last in utter exhaustion he said:\n\n\"Peace, woman, peace, and I'll tell you! But first let me have my coffin\nmade for as I've warned you I shall die the moment I've spoken.\"\n\nSo he had the village carpenter build him a coffin and when it was\nready he stood it up on end against the house and got inside of it.\n\nThe news of what was about to happen spread among the animals and the\nfaithful old sheepdog hurried down from the hills to be with his master\nat the end. He lay down at the foot of the coffin and howled.\n\n\"I've one faithful friend!\" the farmer said. \"Wife, give the poor dog\nsome bread before I tell you my secret and die.\"\n\nThe woman threw the old dog a hunk of bread but the dog refused it and\nkept on howling.\n\nThe rooster from the barnyard came running up and began gobbling down\nthe bread with great gusto.\n\n\"You shameless animal!\" the dog said sternly. \"Here's the poor master\nabout to die on account of that foolish inquisitive wife of his and yet\nyou have so little feeling that you're delighted at the chance to gorge\nyourself with food!\"\n\nThe rooster clucked scornfully.\n\n\"See here, old dog, I can't waste any sympathy on that master of ours!\nAny man who allows his wife to bully him deserves whatever he gets! Look\nat me!\" The rooster puffed out his chest and gave a loud:\n\"_Cock-a-doodle-do_! I've got fifty wives but do they bully me? They do\nnot! Whenever I find a nice fat worm or a grain of corn I set up an\nawful noise and gather them all around me. Then I eat it while they\nstand there and admire me! No, no, old dog, I have no patience with the\nmaster! He has only one wife and he doesn't know how to rule her!\"\n\n\"The rooster's right!\" thought the farmer.\n\nWith that he jumped out of the coffin, picked up a stick, and gave his\nwife a sound beating.\n\n\"So you'd kill your husband just to satisfy your curiosity, would you?\"\nhe shouted angrily. \"Very well, then! Take this and this and this! And\nif your curiosity is still unsatisfied I'll give you some more!\"\n\n\"Stop! Stop! Stop!\" cried the wife. \"Do you want to injure me!\"\n\nBut the farmer did not stop until he had given her such a whipping that\nshe never forgot it. When it was over she begged his pardon humbly and\npromised never again to ask him anything that he didn't want to tell\nher.\n\n\"You just mustn't let me be so foolish again!\" she said.\n\n\"I won't!\" the farmer declared.\n\nThen he puffed out his chest and strutted about until you'd have laughed\nto see him--he looked so much like the rooster!\n\n\n\n\nTHE SILVER TRACKS\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_The Story of the Poor Man Who Befriended a Beggar_\n\n\n\n\nTHE SILVER TRACKS\n\n\nThere were once three brothers who lived in the same village. One of\nthem was very rich. He had houses and fields and barns. He had nothing\nto spend his money on for he had no children and his wife was as saving\nand hardworking as himself. The second brother was not so rich but he,\ntoo, was prosperous. He had one son and all his thought was to\naccumulate money and property in order to leave his son rich. He schemed\nand worked and slaved and made his wife do the same.\n\nThe third brother was industrious but very poor. He worked early and\nlate and never took a holiday. He couldn't afford to for he had a wife\nand ten children and only by working every hour of the day and often far\ninto the night could he earn enough to buy food for so large a family.\nHe was a simple man and a good man and he taught his children that the\nmost important thing for them to do in life was to love God and be kind\nto their fellowmen.\n\nNow it happened that once, when our Lord Christ was on earth testing out\nthe hearts of men, he came in the guise of a beggar to the village\nwhere the three brothers lived. He came in a brokendown cart driving a\nwheezy old horse. It was cold and raining and night was falling.\n\nThe Beggar knocked at the door of the richest brother and said:\n\n\"I pray you in God's name give shelter for the night to me and my\nhorse.\"\n\n\"What!\" cried the rich man, \"do you suppose I have nothing better to do\nthan give shelter to such as you! Be off with you or I'll call my men\nand have them give you the beating you deserve!\"\n\nThe Beggar left without another word and went to the house of the next\nbrother. He was civil at least to the Beggar and pretended that he was\nsorry to refuse him.\n\n\"I'd accommodate you if I could,\" he said, \"but the truth is I can't. My\nhouse isn't as big as it looks and I have many people dependent on me.\nJust go on a little farther and I'm sure you'll find some one who will\ntake you in.\"\n\nThe Beggar turned his horse's head and went to the tiny little house\nwhere the poor brother lived with his big family. He knocked on the door\nand begged for shelter.\n\n\"Come in, brother,\" said the Poor Man. \"We're pretty crowded here but\nwe'll find a place for you.\"\n\n\"And my horse,\" the Beggar said; \"I'm afraid to leave him out in the\nrain and cold.\"\n\n\"We'll stable him with my donkey,\" the Poor Man said. \"Do you come in\nhere by the fire and dry off and I'll see to the horse.\"\n\nThe Poor Man pulled out his own cart until it was exposed to the rain in\norder to make a dry place in the shed for the Beggar's cart. Then he led\nthe Beggar's gaunt horse into his tiny stable and fed him for the night\nout of his own slender store of oats and hay.\n\nHe and his family shared their evening meal with the Beggar and then\nmade up for him a bed of straw near the fire where he was able to pass\nthe night comfortably and warmly.\n\nThe next morning as he was leaving he said to the Poor Man:\n\n\"You must come sometime to my house and visit me and let me return the\nhospitality you have shown me.\"\n\n\"Where do you live?\" the Poor Man asked.\n\n\"You can always find me,\" the Beggar said, \"by following the tracks of\nmy cart. You will know them because they are broader than the tracks of\nany other cart. You will come, won't you?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" the Poor Man promised, \"I will if ever I have time.\"\n\nThey bade each other good-by and the Beggar drove slowly off. Then the\nPoor Man went to the shed to get his own cart and the first thing he saw\nwere two large silver bolts lying on the ground.\n\n\"They must have fallen from the Beggar's cart!\" he thought to himself\nand he ran out to the road to see whether the Beggar were still in\nsight. But he and the cart had disappeared.\n\n\"I hope he has no accident on account of those bolts!\" the Poor Man\nsaid.\n\nWhen he went to the stable to get his donkey he found four golden\nhorse-shoes where the Beggar's horse had been standing.\n\n\"Four golden horse-shoes!\" he exclaimed. \"I ought to return them and the\nsilver bolts at once! But I can't to-day, I'm too busy. Well, I'll hide\nthem safely away and some afternoon when I have a few hours to spare\nI'll follow the tracks of the cart to the Beggar's house.\"\n\nThat afternoon he met his two rich brothers and told them about the\nBeggar.\n\n\"Silver bolts!\" cried one.\n\n\"Golden horse-shoes!\" cried the other. \"Take us home with you and let us\nsee them!\"\n\nSo they went home with the Poor Man and saw for themselves the silver\nbolts and the golden horse-shoes.\n\n\"Brothers,\" the Poor Man said, \"if either of you have time I wish you'd\ntake these things and return them to the Beggar.\"\n\nThey both said, no, no, they hadn't time, but they would like to know\nwhere the Beggar lived.\n\n\"He said I could always find him,\" the Poor Man said, \"by following the\ntracks of his cart.\"\n\n\"The tracks of his cart!\" echoed the other two. \"Show us the tracks of\nhis cart!\"\n\nThey went to the shed where the cart had been and followed the tracks\nout to the road. Even on the road they were easy to see for besides\nbeing wider than any other cart tracks they shone white like glistening\nsilver.\n\n\"H'm! H'm!\" murmured the two rich brothers.\n\n\"You don't think either of you have time to follow them to the Beggar's\nhouse?\" the Poor Man said.\n\n\"No! Of course not! Of course not!\" they both answered.\n\nBut in his heart each had already decided to go at once and see for\nhimself what kind of a Beggar this was who had silver bolts in his cart\nand golden shoes on his horse.\n\nThe oldest brother went the very next day driving a new wagon and a fine\nhorse. The silver tracks led through woods and fields and over hills.\nThey came at last to a river which was spanned by a wooden bridge. It\nwas cunningly constructed of timbers beautifully hewn. The rich man had\nnever seen such wood used on a bridge.\n\nBy the roadside beyond the bridge there was a pigsty with one trough\nfull of corn and another full of water. There were two sows in the sty\nand they were fighting each other and tearing at each other and paying\nno attention whatever to all the good food in the trough.\n\nA little farther on there was another river and over it another\nwonderful bridge, this one made entirely of stone.\n\nBeyond it the rich man came to a meadow where there was a hayrick around\nwhich two angry bulls were chasing each other and goring each other\nuntil the blood spurted.\n\n\"I wonder some one doesn't stop them!\" the rich man thought to himself.\n\nThe next river had an iron bridge, more beautiful than the rich man had\never supposed an iron bridge could be.\n\nBeyond the iron bridge there was a field and a bush and two angry rams\nthat were chasing each other around the bush and fighting. Their horns\ncracked as they met and their hides were torn and bleeding where they\nhad gored each other.\n\n\"I never saw so many angry fighting animals!\" the rich man thought to\nhimself.\n\nThe next bridge glowed in the sun like the embers of a fire for it was\nbuilt entirely of shining copper--copper rivets, copper plates, copper\nbeams, nothing but copper.\n\nThe silver tracks led over the copper bridge into a broad valley. By the\nroadside there was a high crossbar from which depended heavy cuts of\nmeat--lamb and pork and veal. Two large bitch dogs were jumping at the\nmeat and then snarling and snapping at each other.\n\nThe next bridge was the loveliest of them all for it was built of white\ngleaming silver.\n\nThe rich man climbed down from his wagon and examined it closely.\n\n\"It would be worth a man's while to carry home a piece of this bridge!\"\nhe muttered to himself.\n\nHe tried the rivets, he shook the railing. At last he found four loose\nbolts which he was able to pull out. The four together were so heavy\nthat he was scarcely able to lift them. He looked cautiously about and\nwhen he saw that no one was looking, he slipped them one by one into the\nbottom of his wagon and covered them with straw. Then he turned his\nhorse's head and drove home as fast as he could. It was midnight when he\ngot there and nobody about to spy on him as he hid the silver bolts in\nthe hay.\n\nThe next day when he went out alone to gloat over his treasure he found\ninstead of four heavy silver bolts four pieces of wood!\n\nSo that's what the rich brother got for following the silver tracks.\n\nA day or two later without saying a word to any one, the second brother\ndecided that he would follow the silver tracks and have a look at the\nstrange Beggar whose cart had silver bolts and whose wheezy horse had\ngolden shoes.\n\n\"Perhaps if I keep my wits about me I'll be able to pick up a few golden\nhorse-shoes. Not many boys inherit golden horse-shoes from their\nfathers!\"\n\n[Illustration: _The Beggar's Garden_]\n\nWell, the second brother went over exactly the same route and saw\nexactly the same things. He crossed all those wonderful bridges that his\nbrother had crossed--the wooden bridge, the stone bridge, the iron\nbridge, the copper bridge, the silver bridge, and he saw all those\nangry animals still trying to gore each other to death.\n\nHe didn't stop at the silver bridge for he thought to himself:\n\n\"Perhaps the next bridge will be golden and if it is I may be able to\nbreak off a piece of it!\"\n\nBeyond the silver bridge was another broad valley and the second brother\nsaw many strange sights as he drove through. There was a man standing\nalone in a field and trying to beat off a flock of ravens that were\nswooping down and pecking at his eyes. Near him was an old man with\nsnow-white hair who was making loud outcries to heaven praying to be\ndelivered from the two oxen who were munching at his white hair as\nthough it were so much hay. They ate great wisps of it and the more they\nate the more grew out.\n\nThere was an apple-tree heavily laden with ripe fruit and a hungry man\nforever reaching up and plucking an apple. The apples were apples of\nSodom and always as the hungry man raised each new one to his mouth it\nturned to ashes.\n\nIn another place a thirsty man was reaching with a dipper into a well\nand always, just as he was about to scoop up some water, the well moved\naway from under the dipper.\n\n\"What a strange country this is!\" thought the second brother as he drove\non.\n\nAt last he reached the next bridge and sure enough it was shining gold!\nEvery part of it--bolts and beams and pillars, all were gold. In great\nexcitement the second brother climbed down from his wagon and began\npulling and wrenching at various parts of the bridge hoping to find some\nloose pieces which he could break off. At last he succeeded in pulling\nout four long bolts which were so heavy he could scarcely lift them.\nAfter looking about in all directions to make sure that no one saw him,\nhe put them into his wagon and covered them up with straw. Then he drove\nhomewards as fast as he could.\n\n\"Ha! Ha!\" he chuckled as he hid the golden bolts in the barn. \"My son\nwill now be a richer man than my brother!\"\n\nHe could scarcely sleep with thinking of his golden treasure and at the\nfirst light of morning he slipped out to the barn. Imagine his rage when\nhe found in the straw four bolts of wood!\n\nSo that was all the second brother got for following the silver tracks.\n\nWell, years went by and the Poor Man worked day after day and all day\nand often far into the night. Some of his children died and the rest\ngrew up and went out into the world and married and made homes of their\nown. Then at last his good wife died and the time came when the Poor Man\nwas old and all alone in the world.\n\nOne night as he sat on his doorstep thinking of his wife and of his\nchildren when they were little and of all the years he had worked for\nthem to keep them fed and clothed, he happened to remember the Beggar\nand the promise he had made to visit him sometime.\n\n\"And to think of all the years I've kept his golden horse-shoes and his\nsilver bolts! Well, he'll forgive me, I know,\" thought the Poor Man,\n\"for he'll understand that I've always been too busy up to this time\never to follow the tracks of his cart. I wonder are they still there.\"\n\nHe went out to the roadside and peered down and how it happened I don't\nknow, but to his dim eyes at least there were the silver tracks as clear\nas ever.\n\n\"Good!\" cried the Poor Man. \"To-morrow morning bright and early I'll\nhitch up the donkey and visit my old friend, the Beggar!\"\n\nSo the next day he took out the silver bolts and the golden horse-shoes\nfrom the place where he had kept them hidden all these years and he put\nthem in a bag. Then he hitched his old donkey to his old cart and\nstarted out to follow the silver tracks to the Beggar's home.\n\nWell, he saw just exactly the same things that his brothers had seen\nthose many years before: all those terrible fighting animals and all\nthose unfortunate men.\n\n\"I'll have to remember and ask the Beggar what ails all these\ncreatures,\" he thought to himself.\n\nLike his brothers he passed over the wooden bridge and the stone bridge\nand the iron bridge and the copper bridge and the silver bridge and even\nthe golden bridge. Beyond the golden bridge he came to a Garden that was\nsurrounded by a high wall of diamonds and rubies and sapphires and all\nkinds of precious stones that blazed as brightly as the sun itself. The\nsilver tracks turned in at the garden gate which was locked.\n\nThe poor man climbed down from his cart, unhitched the donkey, and set\nhim out to graze on the tender grass that grew by the wayside.\n\nThen he took the bag that held the golden horse-shoes and the silver\nbolts and he went to the garden gate. It was a very wonderful gate of\nbeaten gold set with precious stones. For a moment the Poor Man wondered\nif he dare knock at so rich a gate, then he remembered that his friend\nthe Beggar was inside and he knew that he would be made welcome.\n\nIt was the Beggar himself who opened the gate. When he saw the Poor Man\nhe smiled and held out his hands and said:\n\n\"Welcome, dear friend! I have been waiting for you all these years! Come\nin and I will show you my Garden.\"\n\nSo the Poor Man went inside. And first of all he gave the Beggar his\ngolden horse-shoes and his silver bolts.\n\n\"Forgive me,\" he said, \"for keeping them so long, but I've never had\ntime until now to return them.\"\n\nThe Beggar smiled.\n\n\"I knew, dear friend, that they were safe with you and that you would\nbring them some day.\"\n\nThen the Beggar put his arm over the Poor Man's shoulder and led him\nthrough the Garden showing him the wonderful golden fruits and beautiful\nflowers. They sat them down beside a fountain of crystal water and while\nthey listened to the songs of glorious birds they talked together and\nthe Poor Man asked about the strange things he had seen along the road.\n\n\"All those animals,\" the Beggar said, \"were once human beings who\ninstead of fearing God and being kind to their fellowmen passed all\ntheir time fighting and cheating and cursing. The two sows were two\nsisters-in-law who hated each other bitterly. The two bulls and the two\nrams were neighbors who fought for years and years over the boundary\nlines of their farms and now they keep on fighting through eternity. The\ntwo bitches were two sisters who fought until they died over the\ninheritance left them by their father. The old man whose hair the oxen\neat was a farmer who always pastured his cattle on his neighbors'\nfields. Now he has his reward. The man at whose eyes the ravens peck was\nan ungrateful son who mistreated his parents. The man with the awful\nthirst that can never be quenched was a drunkard, and the one at whose\nlips the apples turn to ashes was a glutton.\"\n\nSo they talked on together, the Poor Man and the Beggar, until it was\nlate afternoon and the Beggar said:\n\n\"And now, dear friend, you will sup with me as I once supped with you.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" the Poor Man said, \"I will. But let me first go out and see\nhow my donkey is.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" the Beggar said, \"go. But be sure to come back for I shall\nbe waiting for you.\"\n\nSo the Poor Man went out the garden gate and looked for his donkey. But\nthe donkey was gone.\n\n\"He must have started home,\" the Poor Man thought. \"I'll hurry and\novertake him.\"\n\nSo he started back afoot the way he had come. He went on and on but saw\nno donkey. He crossed the golden bridge and the silver bridge and the\ncopper bridge and the iron bridge and the stone bridge and last of all\nthe wooden bridge, but still there was no donkey.\n\n\"He must have got all the way home,\" he thought.\n\nWhen the Poor Man reached his native village things looked different.\nHouses that he remembered had disappeared and others had taken their\nplaces. He couldn't find his own little house at all. He asked the\npeople he met and they knew nothing about it. And they knew nothing\nabout him, either, not even his name. And nobody even knew about his\nsons. At last he did meet one old man who remembered the family name and\nwho told him that many years before the last of the sons had gone to\nanother village to live.\n\n\"There's no place here for me,\" the Poor Man thought. \"I better go back\nto my friend the Beggar and stay with him. No one else wants me.\"\n\nSo once again he followed the silver tracks all that long way over all\nthose bridges and when at last he reached the garden gate he was very\ntired, for he was old and feeble now. It was all he could do to give one\nfaint little knock. But the Beggar heard him and came running to let\nhim in. And when he saw him, how tired he was and how feeble, he put his\narm around him and helped him into the Garden and he said:\n\n\"You shall stay with me now forever and we shall be very happy\ntogether.\"\n\nAnd the Poor Man when he looked in the Beggar's face to thank him saw\nthat he was not a beggar at all but the Blessed Christ Himself. And then\nhe knew that he was in the Garden of Paradise.\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nTHE END\n\n\n\n\nSTORIES TO TELL\n\nIT'S PERFECTLY TRUE AND OTHER STORIES. _By Hans Christian Andersen._\nTwenty-eight stories translated from the Danish by Paul Leyssac.\n\n13 DANISH TALES. _By Mary C. Hatch._ A baker's dozen of robust, humorous\nfolk tales.\n\nMORE DANISH TALES. _By Mary C. Hatch._ Fifteen rollicking folk tales\nretold from Sven Grundtvig's _Folkaeventyr_.\n\nA BAKER'S DOZEN. _Selected by Mary Gould Davis._ Thirteen stories which\nare especially successful in storytelling.\n\nTHE TREASURE OF LI-PO. _By Alice Ritchie._ Six original fairy tales set\nin China and told with beauty and distinction.\n\nTHE SHEPHERD'S NOSEGAY: Stories from Finland and Czechoslovakia. _By\nParker Fillmore._ Children and storytellers alike will welcome these\nrich and robust folk tales, long unavailable.\n\nROOTABAGA STORIES. _By Carl Sandburg._ An omnibus volume including all\nthe stories originally published in the two books _Rootabaga Stories_\nand _Rootabaga Pigeons_.\n\nTHE TIGER'S WHISKER: And Other Tales and Legends from Asia and the\nPacific. _By Harold Courlander._ Thirty-one Far Eastern folk tales, full\nof sly humor, adventure, and virtue rewarded.\n\nTHE HAT-SHAKING DANCE and Other Tales from the Gold Coast. _By Harold\nCourlander and Albert Kofi Prempeh._ A handsome collection of twenty-one\nwise and humorous Ashanti folk tales.\n\nHARCOURT, BRACE & WORLD, INC.\n757 _Third Avenue, New York 17, N. Y._\n\n\n\n\n_=The Magic Listening Cap=_\n\n_More Folk Tales from Japan_\n\nBY YOSHIKO UCHIDA\n\n\nWisdom and humor abound in the fourteen folk tales of this second\ncollection by the author of _The Dancing Kettle_. Once more Miss Uchida\nhas dipped into the wealth of Japanese folklore to retell delightful\nstories that American children have seldom heard.\n\n\"The Wrestling Match of the Two Buddhas,\" \"The Man Who Bought a Dream,\"\n\"The Golden Axe,\" and others are a fascinating combination of the\nstrange and the familiar. A different land, a different people, a\ndifferent kind of magic all come to life in these colorful, imaginative\ntales. And yet running through them are such universal folk themes as\nthe inevitable downfall of the greedy and the foolish. In all of these\nadventures there is a keen sense of the Japanese countryside with its\nmountains and sea, rice fields, deep green forests, and delicate\ngardens.\n\nRetold with freshness and simplicity, these ancient tales are not only\nfun to read but also welcome new material for storytelling.\n\n_Illustrated by the author_\n\nHonor Book in the 1955 _N. Y. Herald Tribune_ Children's Spring Book\nFestival\n\n60-100\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER'S NOTE\n\nPlease hover your mouse over the words with a thin dotted gray line\nunderneath them for seeing what the original reads. The text in the solid\nblack box is the text from the dust cover flaps.\n\nLIST OF FIXED ISSUES\n\np. 023--removed a duplicate period after 'frozen over'\np. 094--typo fixed: changed 'to to' into 'to'\np. 096--inserted a missing 'is' between 'It' and 'like a fox's tail!'\np. 131--typo fixed: changed 'hankerchief' into 'handkerchief'\np. 214--typo fixed: changed 'tomorrrow's' into 'tomorrow's'.\np. 225--removed a duplicate 'and' in front of 'searched here'\np. 238--typo fixed: changed 'winepresses' into 'wine-presses'\np. 281--typo fixed: changed 'horseshoes' into 'horse-shoes'","title":"The Laughing Prince: Jugoslav Folk and Fairy Tales","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":48551}