, but the
handsomest and proudest of all rode the most fiery charger, and was
the emperor's son himself.

When they saw the sisters, they curbed their horses and rode more
slowly.

"Listen to me, sisters," said Anna; "if one of those youths should
choose me for his wife, I'd knead a loaf of bread which, when he had
eaten it, would make him always feel young and brave."

"And I," said Stana, "would weave my husband a shirt, in which he
could fight against dragons, go through water without being wet, or
fire without being burned."

"But I," said Laptitza, the youngest sister, "would give my husband
two beautiful sons, twin boys with golden hair, and on their foreheads
a golden star, a star as bright as Lucifer."

The youths heard these words, and turning their horses dashed toward
the maidens.

"Sacred be thy promise, thou shalt be mine, fairest empress," cried
the emperor's son, lifting Laptitza with her berries upon his horse.

"And thou shalt be mine!" "And thou shalt be mine!" said a second and
third youth; so bearing their lovely burdens on their steeds, all
dashed back to the imperial court.

The three weddings were celebrated the very next day, and for three
days and nights the festival was held throughout the empire with great
pomp and splendor. After three days and nights the news went through
the whole country that Anna had gathered grain, ground, boiled, and
kneaded it, and made a loaf of bread, as she had promised while
picking strawberries. Then, after three more days and nights, tidings
went through the land that Stana had collected flax, dried, and
hackled it, spun it into linen, wove the cloth, and made her husband a
shirt as she had promised while seeking for her strawberries. Laptitza
alone had not yet kept her word, but great things require time.

When seven weeks had passed, counting from the wedding day, the
emperor's son, now emperor, appeared before his brave companions and
the other courtiers with a very joyous face, and in a much softer
voice than ever before informed them that henceforth he should not
leave the court for a long time, his heart moved him to stay with his
wife night and day.

So the world, the country, and the whole empire rejoiced in the
expectation of seeing something never beheld before.

But many things happen in this world, among them much that is good and
much that is evil.

The emperor had a step-mother, who had brought with her to the palace
a daughter of h