s place.

When his excitement had somewhat calmed down, he cried to the boy,
'Whether you are really my son matters nothing to me; tell me, how can I
repay you for what you have done for me?'

'By showing me where the Milk Lake is, and how I can get one of the
three fairies who lives there to wife, and by letting me remain your son
for ever.'

The night was passed by Mogarzea and his son in songs and feasting, for
both were too happy to sleep, and when day dawned they set out together
to free the elves from the tree. When they reached the place of their
imprisonment, Mogarzea took the cherry tree and all the elves with it on
his back, and carried them off to his father's kingdom, where everyone
rejoiced to see him home again. But all he did was to point to the boy
who had saved him, and had followed him with his flock.

For three days the boy stayed in the palace, receiving the thanks and
praises of the whole court. Then he said to Mogarzea:

'The time has come for me to go hence, but tell me, I pray you, how to
find the Sweet Milk Lake, and I will return, and will bring my wife back
with me.'

Mogarzea tried in vain to make him stay, but, finding it was useless, he
told him all he knew, for he himself had never seen the lake.

For three summer days the boy and his flute journeyed on, till one
evening he reached the lake, which lay in the kingdom of a powerful
fairy. The next morning had scarcely dawned when the youth went down
to the shore, and began to play on his flute, and the first notes had
hardly sounded when he saw a beautiful fairy standing before him, with
hair and robes that shone like gold. He gazed at her in wonder, when
suddenly she began to dance. Her movements were so graceful that
he forgot to play, and as soon as the notes of his flute ceased she
vanished from his sight. The next day the same thing happened, but on
the third he took courage, and drew a little nearer, playing on his
flute all the while. Suddenly he sprang forward, seized her in his arms
and kissed her, and plucked a rose from her hair.

The fairy gave a cry, and begged him to give her back her rose, but he
would not. He only stuck the rose in his hat, and turned a deaf ear to
all her prayers.

At last she saw that her entreaties were vain, and agreed to marry him,
as he wished. And they went together to the palace, where Mogarzea was
still waiting for him, and the marriage was celebrated by the emperor
himself. But every May