,
and the old man went begging under the windows of charitable people.
He went from one window to another, from one village to another, from
one town to another, and one bright day he came to the palace where
Ivan lived, begging humbly for charity. Ivan saw him and recognized
him, ordered him to come inside, and gave him food to eat and also
supplied him with good clothes, asking questions:

[Illustration: "_The old man went begging from town to town_"]

"Dear old man, what can I do for thee?" he said.

"If thou art so very good," answered the poor father, without knowing
that he was speaking to his own son, "let me remain here and serve
thee among thy faithful servants."

"Dear, dear father!" exclaimed Ivan, "thou didst doubt the true song
of the nightingale, and now thou seest that our fate was to meet
according to the predictions of long ago."

The old man was frightened and knelt before his son, but his Ivan
remained the same good son as before, took his father lovingly into
his arms, and together they wept over their sorrow.

Several days passed by and the old father felt courage to ask his son,
the korolevitch:

"Tell me, my son, how was it that thou didst not perish in the boat?"

Ivan Korolevitch laughed gayly.

"I presume," he answered, "that it was not my fate to perish at the
bottom of the wide sea, but my fate was to marry the korolevna, my
beautiful wife, and to sweeten the old age of my dear father."

[Illustration]

IVANOUSHKA THE SIMPLETON

[Illustration] In a kingdom far away from our country, there was a
town over which ruled the Tsar Pea with his Tsaritza Carrot. He had
many wise statesmen, wealthy princes, strong, powerful warriors, and
also simple soldiers, a hundred thousand, less one man. In that
town lived all kinds of people: honest, bearded merchants, keen
and open-handed rascals, German tradesmen, lovely maidens, Russian
drunkards; and in the suburbs all around, the peasants tilled the
soil, sowed the wheat, ground the flour, traded in the markets, and
spent the money in drink.

In one of the suburbs there was a poor hut where an old man lived with
his three sons, Thomas, Pakhom, and Ivan. The old man was not only
clever, he was wise. He had happened once to have a chat with the
devil. They talked together while the old man treated him to a tumbler
of wine and got out of the devil many great secrets. Soon after this
the peasant began to perform such marvelous acts th