kled her with holy water, and baptized her again,
and the unclean spirit departed from her. Then the Tsar gave the young
man half his power and half his kingdom, but the merchants departed in
their ships, with their nephew on board.

[Illustration: THEY WERE BOTH ON THEIR KNEES]

They lived together, and time went on and the young man still remained
a bachelor, and was so handsome that words cannot describe it. But the
Tsar lived alone with his daughter. She, however, grew sadder and
sadder, and was no longer like her former self, so sorrowful was she.
And the Tsar asked her, saying, "Wherefore art thou so sorrowful?"--"I
am not sorrowful, father," said she. But the Tsar watched her, and saw
that she _was_ sorrowful, and there was no help for it. Then he asked
her again, "Art thou ill?"--"Nay, dear dad," said she. "I myself know
not what is the matter with me."

And so it went on, till the Tsar dreamt a dream, and in this dream it
was said to him, "Thy daughter grieves because she loves so much the
youth who drove the unclean spirit out of her." Then the Tsar asked
her, "Dost thou love this youth?"--And she answered, "I do, dear
father."--"Then why didst thou not tell me before, my daughter?" said
he. Then he sent for his heyducks and commanded them, saying, "Go this
instant to such and such a kingdom, and there ye will find the youth
who cured my daughter; bring him to me." Then they went on and on
until they found him, and he took just the same laths and boards that
he had had before, and went with them. The Tsar met him, and bought
all his boards, and when they split them in pieces, lo! they were full
of precious stones. Then the Tsar took him to his own house and gave
him his daughter. And they lived right merrily together.

THE STORY OF TREMSIN, THE
BIRD ZHAR, AND NASTASIA,
THE LOVELY MAID OF THE SEA

There was once upon a time a man and a woman, and they had one little
boy. In the summertime they used to go out and mow corn in the fields,
and one summer when they had laid their little lad by the side of a
sheaf, an eagle swooped down, caught up the child, carried him into a
forest, and laid him in its nest. Now in this forest three bandits
chanced to be wandering at the same time. They heard the child crying
in the eagle's nest: "Oo-oo! oo-oo! oo-oo!" so they went up to the oak
on which was the nest and said one to another, "Let us hew down the
tree and kill the child!"--"No," replied one of them, "i