e bearing the water. They had set out to meet him, and would try
to take the magic water from him, and then claim as their reward the
government of the emperor.

'You are lying!' cried Petru angrily, throwing the box on the ground,
where it broke into a thousand pieces.

It was not long before he began to catch glimpses of his native land,
and he drew rein near a bridge, the better to look at it. He was still
gazing, when he heard a sound in the distance as if some one was calling
hit by his name.

'You, Petru!' it said.

'On! on!' cried the horse; 'it will fare ill with you if you stop.'

'No, let us stop, and see who and what it is!' answered Petru, turning
his horse round, and coming face to face with his two brothers. He had
forgotten the warning given him by the Goddess of Thunder, and when
Costan and Florea drew near with soft and flattering words he jumped
straight off his horse, and rushed to embrace them. He had a thousand
questions to ask, and a thousand things to tell. But his brown horse
stood sadly hanging his head.

'Petru, my dear brother,' at length said Florea, 'would it not be better
if we carried the water for you? Some one might try to take it from you
on the road, while no one would suspect us.'

'So it would,' added Costan. 'Florea speaks well.' But Petru shook his
head, and told them what the Goddess of Thunder had said, and about the
cloth she had given him. And both brothers understood there was only one
way in which they could kill him.

At a stone's throw from where they stood ran a rushing stream, with
clear deep pools.

'Don't you feel thirsty, Costan?' asked Florea, winking at him.

'Yes,' replied Costan, understanding directly what was wanted. 'Come,
Petru, let us drink now we have the chance, and then we will set out on
our way home. It is a good thing you have us with you, to protect you
from harm.'

The horse neighed, and Petru knew what it meant, and did not go with his
brothers.

No, he went home to his father, and cured his blindness; and as for his
brothers, they never returned again.

(From Rumanische Marchen.)

THE ENCHANTED KNIFE

Once upon a time there lived a young man who vowed that he would never
marry any girl who had not royal blood in her veins. One day he plucked
up all his courage and went to the palace to ask the emperor for his
daughter. The emperor was not much pleased at the thought of such a
match for his only child, but being very polite,