ods. There's better grass there and I'm not afraid of the
Yezinkas."

Before he started out he cut three long slender switches from a
blackberry bramble, wound them into small coils, and hid them in the
crown of his hat. Then he drove the goats through the woods where
they nibbled at leaves and branches, beside a deep river where they
paused to drink, and up the grassy slopes of the hill.

There the goats scattered this way and that and Yanechek sat down on a
stone in the shade. He was hardly seated when he looked up and there
before him, dressed all in white, stood the most beautiful maiden in
the world. Her skin was red as roses and white as milk, her eyes were
black as sloe berries, and her hair, dark as the raven's wing, fell
about her shoulders in long waving tresses. She smiled and offered
Yanechek a big red apple.

"God bless you, shepherd boy," she said. "Here's something for you
that grew in my own garden."

But Yanechek knew that she must be a Yezinka and that, if he ate the
apple, he would fall asleep and then she would gouge out his eyes. So
he said, politely: "No, thank you, beautiful maiden. My master has a
tree in his garden with apples that are bigger than yours and I have
eaten as many as I want."

When the maiden saw that Yanechek was not to be coaxed, she
disappeared.

Presently a second maiden came, more beautiful, if possible, than the
first. In her hand she carried a lovely red rose.

"God bless you, shepherd boy," she said. "Isn't this a lovely rose? I
picked it myself from the hedge. How fragrant it is! Will you smell
it?"

She offered him the rose but Yanechek refused it.

"No, thank you, beautiful maiden. My master's garden is full of roses
much sweeter than yours and I smell roses all the time."

At that the second maiden shrugged her shoulders and disappeared.

Presently a third one came, the youngest and most beautiful of them
all. In her hand she carried a golden comb.

"God bless you, shepherd boy."

"Good day to you, beautiful maiden."

She smiled at Yanechek and said: "Truly you are a handsome lad, but
you would be handsomer still if your hair were nicely combed. Come,
let me comb it for you."

Yanechek said nothing but he took off his hat without letting the
maiden see what was hidden in its crown. She came up close to him and
then, just as she was about to comb his hair, he whipped out one of
the long blackberry switches and struck her over the hands. She
screamed