e has!"

"Shame on you," the old man said, "to talk so of your own daughter!
Ludmila is a good girl and has always been loyal and obedient."

"I hope so," Yezibaba said, "but just the same I think I myself will
carry him out his dinner today."

"Nonsense, old woman! You'll do no such thing! You're always smelling
a rat somewhere! Let the boy alone and don't go nagging at Ludmila
either!"

So Yezibaba said no more. This time she cooked a mess of lizards for
Raduz' dinner.

"Here, Ludmila," she said, "carry this out to the young man. But see
that you don't talk to him. And hurry back."

Poor Raduz had been pounding stones one on another as well as he
could, but he hadn't been able to grind any of them into flour. As
noonday approached he kept looking up anxiously to see whether
beautiful Ludmila was again coming to help him.

"Here I am," she called while she was yet some distance away. "You
were to have lizard stew today but, see, I am bringing you my own
dinner!"

Then she told him what she had heard Yezibaba say to her father.

"Today she almost brought you your dinner herself, for she suspects
that I have been helping you. If she knew that I really had she would
kill you."

"Dear Ludmila," Raduz said, "I know very well that without you I am
lost! How can I ever thank you for all you have done for me?"

Ludmila said she didn't want thanks. She was helping Raduz because she
was sorry for him and loved him.

Then she took Yezibaba's wand and struck the rocky cliff. At once,
instead of the bare rock, there were sacks of grain and a millstone
that worked merrily away grinding out fine flour. As you watched, the
flour was kneaded up into loaves and then, pop went the loaves into a
hot oven and soon the air was sweet with the smell of baking bread.

Raduz begged Ludmila to stay and talk to him, but she remembered that
the old witch was waiting for her and she hurried home.

The next morning Raduz carried the baked loaves to Yezibaba. She
sniffed at them suspiciously and then her wicked heart nearly cracked
with bitterness to think that Raduz had accomplished his third task.
But she hid her disappointment and pretending to smile, she said:

"I see, my dear boy, that you have been able to do all the tasks that
I have set you. This is enough for the present. Today you may rest."

That night the old witch hatched the plot of boiling Raduz alive. She
had him fill a big cauldron with water and put it on the fir