Page:Slavonic Fairy Tales.djvu/271

 254 in the morning on whose branch grapes will be found, him she must take for her husband."

They all agreed to this proposition. The princess planted three branches of vine in the garden, and named each one after a suitor. In the morning there were grapes on the vine of the poor man. The king not knowing how to get out of this difficulty, was obliged to give his daughter to the youngest brother for wife; he took them at once to church and married them. After the ceremony, the angel took the newly-married couple to a forest and left them there, and they lived in that forest one year.

When the year was up, the angel was again commanded to go and see how the brothers were living, and to assist them if they needed it. Having descended to the earth the angel again assumed the shape of a beggar, went to the eldest brother where the wine was flowing in the stream, and begged him for a glass of wine; but the man drove him away, saying,—

"If I were to give a glass of wine to everybody that asks for it, there would be nothing left for me."

When the angel heard this he made the sign of the cross with his staff, and the water flowed again in the stream as before; then he said to the eldest brother,—

"Riches were not good for you; go home and attend to your pear-tree again."