was fulfilled--two beautiful twin princes,
exactly alike, each with golden hair and a golden star on his
forehead.

But the world was not to see them!

The step-mother, as wicked as her thoughts, hastily put two puppies in
the place of the beautiful twins, and buried the golden-haired
children at the corner of the palace, just under the emperor's
windows.

When the monarch entered the palace he saw and heard nothing except
the two puppies the step-mother had put in the twins' place. No words
were wasted. The emperor saw with his own eyes, and that was enough.
Laptitza had not kept her promise, and there was nothing to be done
except mete out her punishment.

He could not help it, and though his own heart was torn, commanded
that the empress should be buried to her breast in the earth and so
remain before the eyes of the world, in token of what befell those
who tried to deceive an emperor.

The next day the step-mother's wish was fulfilled. The emperor married
a second time, and again the wedding festivities lasted three days and
three nights.

But God's blessing does not rest upon unjust deeds.

The two princes found no rest in the earth. Two beautiful aspens
sprang up where they were buried, but when the step-mother saw them
she ordered them to be pulled up by the roots. The emperor, however,
said: "Let them grow, I like to see them before the window. I never
beheld such aspens before."

So the trees grew, grew as no other aspens ever had grown, every day a
year's growth, every night another year's growth, but in the dawn of
morning, when the stars were paling in the sky, three years' growth in
a single moment. When three days and three nights had passed, the two
aspens were lofty trees, lifting their boughs to the emperor's window,
and when the wind stirred the branches, he listened to their rustling
all day long.

The step-mother suspected what they were, and pondered all day trying
to find some way to get rid of the trees at any cost. It was a
difficult task, but a woman's will can squeeze milk from a stone, a
woman's cunning conquers heroes--what force can not accomplish, fair
words win, and when these fail, hypocritical tears succeed.

One morning the empress sat down on the side of her husband's bed and
began to overwhelm him with loving words and tender caresses. It was
a long time before the thread broke, but at last--even emperors are
mortal!

"Very well," he said, reluctantly, "have your own w