ed and trembled just as she had blushed and trembled
the night before and that morning, too, on the way to the lake. She
tried to speak but could not at first. Then in a very little voice she
said:

"As a Princess I think it is my duty to marry this brave shepherd who
has delivered my country from this terrible dragon, and--and I think I
should want to marry him anyway."

She said the last part of her speech in such a very low voice that only
the shepherd himself heard it. But that was right enough because after
all it was intended only for him.

So then and there beside the lake before even the shepherd had time to
wash his face and hands and put on his smock the Tsar put the Princess's
hand in his hand and pronounced them betrothed.

After that the shepherd bathed in the lake and then refreshed and clean
he sounded his bagpipes and he and the Princess and the Tsar and all the
courtiers returned to the city driving the sheep before them.

All the townspeople came out to meet them and they danced to the music
of the bagpipes and there was great rejoicing both over the death of the
dragon and over the betrothal of the Princess and the brave shepherd.

The wedding took place at once and the wedding festivities lasted a
week. Such feasting as the townspeople had! Such music and dancing!

When the wedding festivities were ended, the shepherd told the Tsar who
he really was.

"You say you're a Prince!" the Tsar cried, perfectly delighted at this
news. Then he declared he wasn't in the least surprised. In fact, he
said, he had suspected as much from the first!

"Do you think it likely," he asked somewhat pompously, "that any
daughter of mine would fall in love with a man who wasn't a prince?"

"I think I'd have fallen in love with you whatever you were!" whispered
the Princess to her young husband. But she didn't let her father hear
her!

The Prince told the Tsar about his brothers' captivity and how he must
go home to release them, and the Tsar at once said that he and his
bride might go provided they returned as soon as possible.

They agreed to this and the Tsar fitted out a splendid escort for them
and sent them away with his blessing.

So the Prince now traveled back through the towns and villages of three
kingdoms, across rivers and over mountains, no longer a humble shepherd
on foot, but a rich and mighty personage riding in a manner that
befitted his rank.

When he reached the deserted mill, his frien