Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/192

154 "What answer is a fitting one to give? These are truly a king's gifts, and where she has obtained them I cannot guess, but after all her son is only a peasant, and it is not seemly that a peasant wed a Tzarevna."

Then the Prime Minister, coming forward, craved the Tzar's permission, and said to her: "Since thy son, old woman, is, as thou hast said, the cleverest lad in the world, let him build in one round of the sun a splendid Palace beside this one, with a bridge of crystal from one to the other. Let the bridge be adorned with curious carvings, and covered with embroidered carpets, and on either side of it let there be a row of apple-trees with fruit of silver and gold, and with birds of paradise upon each branch. And near by let him build a five-domed cathedral where, when they are wed, he and the Tzarevna may receive the marriage-crown. If thy son does this, then he shall have the Tzar's daughter. If not, ye shall both be beheaded."

The old woman went out from the Tzar's presence to her son, weeping a flood of bitter tears. "Did I not tell thee, my son," she said to Martin, "to keep to thine own place? But thou didst pay