"Yanitchko, please give me that nosegay."

Yan gave it to her at once and she thanked him sweetly.

The next day Yan went again to the castle garden and plucked another
nosegay. Then in the afternoon he drove his sheep through the village as
before, playing his pipe. The princess was standing at the palace window
waiting to see him. When the wind brought her a whiff of the fresh
nosegay that was even more fragrant than the first one, she ran out to
Yan and said:

"Yanitchko, please give me that nosegay."

But Yan smiled and shook his head.

"Whoever wants this nosegay must say: 'My dear Yanitchko, I beg you most
politely please to give me that nosegay.'"

"My dear Yanitchko," the princess repeated demurely, "I beg you most
politely please to give me that nosegay."

So Yan gave her the second nosegay. The princess put it in her window
and the fragrance filled the village until people from far and near came
to see it.

After that every day Yan gathered a nosegay for the princess and every
day the princess stood at the palace window waiting to see the handsome
shepherd. And always when she asked for the nosegay, she said: "Please."

In this way a month went by and the day arrived when the neighboring
princes were to come to meet the princess. They were to come in fine
array, the people said, and the princess had ready a kerchief and a ring
for the one who would please her most.

Yan planted the ax in the meadow and, leaving the sheep to graze about
it, went to the castle where he ordered the servants of the chest to
dress him as befitted his rank. They put a white suit upon him and gave
him a white horse with trappings of silver.

So he rode to the palace and took his place with the other princes but
behind them so that the princess had to crane her neck to see him.

One by one the various princes rode by the princess but to none of them
did the princess give her kerchief and ring. Yan was the last to salute
her, and instantly she handed him her favors.

Then before the king or the other suitors could speak to him, Yan put
spurs to his horse and rode off.

That evening as usual when he was driving home his sheep, the princess
ran out to him and said:

"Yan, it was you!"

But Yan laughed and put her off.

"How can a poor shepherd be a prince?" he asked.

The princess was not convinced and she said in another month, when the
princes were to come again, she would find out.

So for another month Yan t