very moment he forgot all about his wife, just as if she had
never entered into his mind.

Three days did Vasilissa the Wise await him. On the fourth
day she clad herself like a beggar, went into the capital, and
took up her quarters in an old woman's house. But the Prince
was preparing to marry a rich Princess, and orders were given
to proclaim throughout the kingdom, that all Christian people
were to come to congratulate the bride and bridegroom, each
one bringing a wheaten pie as a present. Well, the old woman
with whom Vasilissa lodged, prepared, like everyone else, to
sift flour and make a pie.

"Why are you making a pie, granny?" asked Vasilissa.

"Is it why? you evidently don't know then. Our King is
giving his son in marriage to a rich princess: one must go to
the palace to serve up the dinner to the young couple."

"Come now! I, too, will bake a pie and take it to the
palace; may be the King will make me some present."

"Bake away in God's name!" said the old woman.

Vasilissa took flour, kneaded dough, and made a pie. And
inside it she put some curds and a pair of live doves.

Well, the old woman and Vasilissa the Wise reached the
palace just at dinner-time. There a feast was in progress, one
fit for all the world to see. Vasilissa's pie was set on the table,
but no sooner was it cut in two than out of it flew the two
doves. The hen bird seized a piece of curd, and her mate said
to her:

"Give me some curds, too, Dovey!"

"No I won't," replied the other dove: "else you'd forget
me, as the Prince has forgotten his Vasilissa the Wise."

Then the Prince remembered about his wife. He jumped
up from table, caught her by her white hands, and seated her
close by his side. From that time forward they lived together
in all happiness and prosperity.

[With this story may be compared a multitude of tales
in very many languages. In German for instance, "Der
Koenig vom goldenen Berg," (Grimm, _KM._ No. 92. See
also Nos. 51, 56, 113, 181, and the opening of No.
31), "Der Koenigssohn und die Teufelstochter,"
(Haltrich, No. 26), and "Gruenus Kravalle" (Wolf's
"Deutsche Hausmaerchen," No. 29)--the Norse
"Mastermaid," (Asbjoernsen and Moe, No. 46, Dasent, No.
11) and "The Three Princesses of Whiteland," (A. and
M. No. 9, Dasent, No. 26)--the Lithuanian story
(Schleicher, No. 26,