Page:Segnius Irritant or Eight Primitive Folk-lore Stories.pdf/50

 but if they are not destined for thee, thou wilt not tear them off, do what thou wilt. When thou art returning, and art hungry or thirsty, cut one of these citrons in two, and thou shalt eat and drink thy fill. And now go! and God be with thee! But stay, I will not let thee go away hungry; mother! here with those dumplings!” Then old Jezibaba placed a large golden dish on the table. “There, eat!” says her son to the prince, “and if thou art not hungry now, put them in thy pocket and eat on the road.” The prince was not hungry, but put them in his pocket, observing that he would eat them on the road. After this he thanked the giant finely for his hospitality and advice, and continued his journey.

Briskly he stepped out from hill to valley, from valley to hill again, and never halted until under that very same hill of glass. Here he halted as if turned to stone. The hill was high and smooth, there were no excrescences of any sort upon it. On the summit waved and trembled the branches of the miraculous tree, and on the tree the three citrons swung to and fro, and smelt so strong that the young prince almost swooned. “Honour and praise to God! What will be, will be. Now I am once here, I can at least know my fate!” he thought to himself, and tried to scramble up by clawing at the smooth glass; but searce had he ascended a few fathoms, when he missed his footing and down he fell head over heels from the top to the bottom, so that he had not a notion where he was nor what he was, save when he found himself on the ground. In his vexation he begins to toss away the dumplings, thinking that perhaps their weight impeded him. He flings away the first, and lo! the dumpling sticks to the hill of glass; he throws away a second and a third, and sees before him three steps on which he could stand without danger. The prince was quite enchanted. He flung the dumplings before him, and everywhere steps formed out of them for him. First he flung out the leaden dumplings, then the silver ones, and finally the golden ones. Over the steps thus formed the prince strode upward, ever higher and higher, until he had reached safe and sound the very crest of the hill of glass. Here he knelt under the tree and stretched out his hands, and lo! three beautiful citrons flew down into his outstretched palms of their own accord. The tree crumbled away, the hill of glass flattened out and vanished, and when the prince came to himself again, there was neither tree nor hill—a bare plain stretched before him in all directions.