Page:Russian Fairy Book (N. H. Dole).djvu/79

 into the garden, and they seized Prince Ivan with the bird and earned him off to the Tsar, whose name was Dolmat.

Tsar Dolmat was to the last degree wroth with Prince Ivan and roared at him in a thunderous angry voice: "Young man, aren't you ashamed for being a thief? Now who are you, and of what country, and who is your father, and what is your name?"

Prince Ivan answered him, saying: "I am the son of Tsar Vuislaf, and they call me Ivan. Your Magic Bird used to fly every night into our garden and rob my dear father's favourite apple-tree of its golden apples, and so my father sent me off to capture the bird and bring her to him."

"Oho, young man, Prince Ivan," replied the Tsar Dolmat. "Do you think it was a pretty way to do as you did? If you had come to me, I would have given you the Magic Bird honourably. But now wouldn't it be well for me to send out and proclaim to all nations how dishonourably you have acted in my realm? However, go forth, Prince Ivan, if you would do me a service. If you will proceed to the thirtieth realm beyond the thrice-ninth kingdom and get Tsar Afron's gold-maned horse for me, then I will forgive you your crime,