ace.

[Illustration: NINETEEN TIMES DID SHE CAST OFF ONE OF HER SUITS OF
CLOTHES]

The old Tsar sent for him again and again, but his son would never go.
At last the wife was ashamed, and said to her husband one day, "Dear
heart! let me go to thy father! I will only go for my own pastime,
lest he get angry. Why should I not go?" Then he let her go, and she
went to the court of the old Tsar, and took her pastime there. She
amused herself finely, and ate and drank her fill of all good things.
Now her husband had laid this command upon her, "Go and divert thyself
if thou wilt, but if thou tell my father and my mother what has
happened to me, and how I have lost my twenty serpent skins, thou
shalt never see me more." For they did not know that he was now no
longer a serpent, but a simple Tsarevich. She vowed she would never
tell; but for all her promises, she nevertheless told them at last how
her husband had lost his twenty serpent skins. Then she enjoyed
herself to her heart's content, but when she returned home she found
no trace of her husband--he had departed to another kingdom in the
uttermost parts of the world.

Then the poor bride sat her down and wept and wept, and when she had
no more tears to weep, she went forth into the wide world to seek her
husband. She went on till she came to a lonely little house, and she
went and begged a night's lodging from the old woman who dwelt there,
who was the Mother of the Winds. But the Mother of the Winds would not
let her in. "God preserve thee, child!" said she. "My son is already
winging his way hither. In another moment thou wilt hear the rustling
of his wings, in another moment he will slay thee, and scatter thy
bones to the four winds." But the bride besought the old woman till
she had her desire, and the old woman hid her behind a huge chest. A
moment afterward the son of the Mother of the Winds came flying up,
and he smelt out the bride, and said, "What's this, mother? There is
an evil smell of Cossack bones about the house!"--"No, it is not
that," said his mother, "but a young woman has taken shelter here, who
says that she is going in search of her husband."--"Then, mother, give
her the little silver apple, and let her go, for her husband is in
another kingdom." So they sent her away with the little silver apple.

She went on and on till night descended upon her, and she came to the
lonely abode of another old woman, and begged a night's lodging of her
also. But