er father was standing, and as still trembling with
fright she knelt at his feet, he said gently, 'Did I not tell you, my
child, that every bird is not caught in a net?'

The three girls stayed quietly in the palace for a little while,
embroidering, spinning, weaving, and tending their birds and flowers,
when early one morning, the youngest princess entered the door of the
emperor's private apartments. 'My father, it is my turn now. Perhaps I
shall get the better of that wolf!'

'What, do you think you are braver than your sisters, vain little one?
You who have hardly left your long clothes behind you!' but she did not
mind being laughed at, and answered,

'For your sake, father, I would cut the devil himself into small bits,
or even become a devil myself. I think I shall succeed, but if I fail, I
shall come home without more shame than my sisters.'

Still the emperor hesitated, but the girl petted and coaxed him till at
last he said,

'Well, well, if you must go, you must. It remains to be seen what I
shall get by it, except perhaps a good laugh when I see you come back
with your head bent and your eyes on the ground.'

'He laughs best who laughs last,' said the princess.

Happy at having got her way, the princess decided that the first thing
to be done was to find some old white-haired boyard, whose advice she
could trust, and then to be very careful in choosing her horse. So she
went straight to the stables where the most beautiful horses in the
empire were feeding in the stalls, but none of them seemed quite what
she wanted. Almost in despair she reached the last box of all, which was
occupied by her father's ancient war-horse, old and worn like himself,
stretched sadly out on the straw.

The girl's eyes filled with tears, and she stood gazing at him. The
horse lifted his head, gave a little neigh, and said softly, 'You look
gentle and pitiful, but I know it is your love for your father which
makes you tender to me. Ah, what a warrior he was, and what good times
we shared together! But now I too have grown old, and my master has
forgotten me, and there is no reason to care whether my coat is dull or
shining. Yet, it is not too late, and if I were properly tended, in a
week I could vie with any horse in the stables!'

'And how should you be tended?' asked the girl.

'I must be rubbed down morning and evening with rain water, my barley
must be boiled in milk, because of my bad teeth, and my feet must be
wa