before, all shining with gold and silver and
precious stones. He was delighted, and he seized them and carried them
off to the King. When the Princesses saw that the clothes were those
which had been theirs in the other world, they guessed that Prince Ivan
was in this world, so they exchanged glances with each other, but they
held their peace. And the master, having handed over the clothes, went
home, but he no longer found his dear journeyman there. For the Prince
had gone to a shoemaker's, and him too he sent to work for the King; and
in the same way he went the round of all the artificers, and they all
proffered him thanks, inasmuch as through him they were enriched by the
King.

By the time the princely workman had gone the round of all the
artificers, the Princesses had received what they had asked for; all
their clothes were just like what they had been in the other world.
Then they wept bitterly because the Prince had not come, and it was
impossible for them to hold out any longer; it was necessary that
they should be married. But when they were ready for the wedding, the
youngest bride said to the King:

'Allow me, my father, to go and give alms to the beggars.'

He gave her leave, and she went and began bestowing alms upon them, and
examining them closely. And when she had come to one of them, and was
going to give him some money, she caught sight of the ring which she had
given to the Prince in the other world, and her sisters' rings too--for
it really was he. So she seized him by the hand, and brought him into
the hall, and said to the King:

'Here is he who brought us out of the other world. His brothers forbade
us to say that he was alive, threatening to slay us if we did.'

Then the King was wroth with those sons, and punished them as he thought
best. And afterwards three weddings were celebrated.

THE WONDERFUL BIRCH

ONCE upon a time there were a man and a woman, who had an only daughter.
Now it happened that one of their sheep went astray, and they set out to
look for it, and searched and searched, each in a different part of the
wood. Then the good wife met a witch, who said to her:

'If you spit, you miserable creature, if you spit into the sheath of my
knife, or if you run between my legs, I shall change you into a black
sheep.'

The woman neither spat, nor did she run between her legs, but yet the
witch changed her into a sheep. Then she made herself look exactly like
the woman, an