Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/355

Rh over him and summoning his second son, said: "My dear son Dimitry, take my blessing, with gold and troops as much and many as thou wilt, and go thou forth and try. And if thou dost succeed, thou shalt have my Tzardom after me."

And Dimitry, vowing he would do better than his brother, took a knapsack full of gold and a hundred thousand soldiers officered by captains of captains, and set out. He, too, came at length through swamp and bog, to the desert of hot sand, and here his men vanished till there were left but a score. And on the edge of the further forest, in the acre of wild hemp and bramble, he came upon an old woman, a yard tall, sitting on a stone.

"Health to thee, grandmother!" said he.

"And to thee, Tzarevich!" she answered. "Where doth God carry thee? Why comest thou hither? To escape a task or to meet one?"

"To meet one," he replied. "I seek the retreat of the Wizard Kastchey, who hath stolen away my little mother."

"Thou goest in the right direction," the old woman said, "but all the same thou wilt never reach it."

"Why not?" asked the Tzarevich.

"Because," answered the old woman, "there are