Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/50

20 swords and with precious armor which we have traded through the whole world, and our way is eastward, to the Tzardom of Tzar Saltan the Magnificent."

"A fair wind to you," said the Tzaritza. "Carry my greeting, and that of my son Guidon, to Tzar Saltan."

So they sailed on to the Tzar's dominions and a third time were summoned to his presence and feasted; and before they left him he said: "O merchants and travelers, in all your wayfaring what new sights have ye seen? And is there any fresh marvel in the white world?"

"O Tzar's Majesty!" they replied. "We told thee before of the island with its Palace, its self-grinding mill, its golden column and its learned cat. On this voyage also we visited it and were entertained right royally. And now, in addition to the other wonders we recounted, there is there a fir-tree, on which sits a squirrel, cracking with its teeth nuts, whose shells are gold and whose kernels are emerald. The squirrel lives in a crystal summer-house and the gold and emeralds are piled in the Palace treasury till it overflows with such riches that the like is surely not to be seen in the whole world. The noble Tzarevich Guidon showed us