Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/53

Rh hung them to dry. Six little plates sat on a table unwashed. She washed them all and dried them and swept the floor. Hearing a noise outside, she said: "Someone is coming. Let us hide behind the stove."

They hid themselves, and the six Tzareviches entered, all with legs golden to the knee, arms silver to the elbow, and with little stars in their hair. They saw how the room had been swept and the plates and shirts made clean, and were glad. "Show thyself," they cried, "thou who hast washed and tidied our house. If thou art a beautiful girl, thou shalt be our little sister, and if thou art a Tzaritza, thou shalt be our little mother!"

Then Tzaritza Marfa showed herself, and the six Tzareviches ran to her, and she took them in her arms and kissed and caressed them and told them who they were—that she was indeed their mother and Tazarevich [sic] Guidon their little brother. She brought them from the forest to the magic ship and it sailed with them like a white swan, over the open steppe and the blue sea-ocean to the Tzaritza's island, to her Palace of white stone, and there they began to live happily together.

Now when its voyage was finished, the ship of the merchants came back from the ends of the