shness of outdoors. The first
lady-in-waiting looked at him askance for without doubt he was a farmer
lad and his table manners probably were not good. Well, he was a farmer
lad and for that reason he didn't know that she was first
lady-in-waiting. He glanced at her once and thought: "What an ugly old
woman!" and thereafter he didn't think of her at all. He glanced
likewise at the Tsar and the Tsar reminded him of a bull of his own. He
wasn't afraid of the bull, so why be afraid of the Tsar?

Suddenly he saw the Princess lying in bed with her lovely hair spread
out on the pillow like a golden fan and for a moment he couldn't speak.
Then he knelt beside the bed and kissed her hand.

"Princess," he said, "I'm not learned and I'm not clever and I don't
suppose I can succeed where so many wise men have failed. And even if I
do make you laugh you won't have to marry me unless you want to because
the reason I really came was to please Militza."

"Militza?"

"Yes, Princess, my little sister, Militza. She loves me very much and so
she thinks the stories I tell are funny and she laughs at them. Last
night she said to me: 'Stefan, you must go to the Princess and tell her
the story that begins: _In my young days when I was an old, old
man_.... I think she'll just have to laugh and if she laughs then she
can eat and she must be very hungry by this time.'"

"I am," the Princess said, with a catch in her voice. Then she added: "I
think I like that little sister of yours and I think I like you, too. I
wish you would tell me the story that begins: _In my young days when I
was an old, old man_...."

"But, Princess, it's a very foolish story."

"The foolisher, the better!"

Just here the first lady-in-waiting tried to correct the Princess for of
course she should have said: "The more foolish, the better!" but the
Tsar shut her up with a black frown and one fierce, "Wow!"

"Well, then," Stefan began:

_In my young days when I was an old, old man I used to count my bees
every morning. It was easy enough to count the bees but not the beehives
because I had too many hives. One day when I finished counting I found
that my best bee was missing. At once I saddled a rooster and set out to
find him._

"Father!" cried the Princess. "Did you hear what Stefan said? He said he
saddled his rooster!"

"Umph!" muttered the Tsar, and the first lady-in-waiting said severely:

"Princess, do not interrupt! Young man, continue."

_His track