od-day to you," Yan said politely.

The giant, who was a rude, unmannerly fellow, bellowed out:

"It won't take me long to finish you, you young whippersnapper!"

He raised a great iron club to strike Yan but Yan, quick as thought,
flicked the giant with his whip and the huge fellow toppled over dead.

The next day he returned to the castle and found another giant in
possession.

"Ho, ho!" he roared on sight of Yan. "What, you young whippersnapper,
back again! You killed my brother yesterday and now I'll kill you!"

He raised his great iron club to strike Yan, but Yan skipped nimbly
aside. Then he flicked the giant with his whip and the huge fellow
toppled over dead.

When Yan returned to the castle the third day there were no more giants
about. So he wandered from room to room to see what treasures were
there.

In one room he found a big chest. He struck it smartly and immediately
two burly men jumped out and, bowing low before him, said:

"What does the master of the castle desire?"

"Show me everything there is to be seen," Yan ordered.

So the two servants of the chest showed him everything--jewels and
treasures and gold. Then they led him out into the gardens where the
most wonderful flowers in the world were blooming. Yan plucked some
of these and made them into a nosegay.

That afternoon, as he drove home his sheep, he played on his magic pipe
and the sheep, pairing off two by two, began to dance and frisk about
him. All the people in the village ran out to see the strange sight and
laughed and clapped their hands for joy.

The princess ran to the palace window and when she saw the sheep
dancing two by two she, too, laughed and clapped her hands. Then the
wind whiffed her a smell of the wonderful nosegay that Yan was
carrying and she said to her serving maid:

"Run down to the shepherd and tell him the princess desires his
nosegay."

The serving maid delivered the message to Yan, but he shook his head and
said:

"Tell your mistress that whoever wants this nosegay must come herself
and say: 'Yanitchko, give me that nosegay.'"

When the princess heard this, she laughed and said:

"What an odd shepherd! I see I must go myself."

So the princess herself came out to Yan and said:

"Yanitchko, give me that nosegay."

But Yan smiled and shook his head.

"Whoever wants this nosegay must say: 'Yanitchko, please give me that
nosegay.'"

The Princess was a merry girl, so she laughed and said: