Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/142

126 suddenly heard the barking of the dogs, and the galloping of horses behind her.

She quickly climbed up an old oak-tree, and sat down on one of its branches, where she was completely hidden.

As the horsemen came riding along, Alyonushka saw they were the robbers, and began trembling, especially when all the dogs made a sudden rush at the tree, and stood barking round it.

"It seems as though she is hidden in this old tree, but no one can see anything, it is so thick," said one of them.

"We shall soon find out," said the captain, as he threw his sharp javelin up into the oak. It flew right to where Alyonushka sat, and wounded her in the knee. But she was as brave as she was cunning; and before the javelin could fall on the ground she seized it, and wiping the blood off it with her handkerchief, threw it back to the robbers, who looked at it carefully, but finding that there was no blood on it, they rode away.

Alyonushka jumped down from the tree and ran on as fast as her wounded knee would let her, till she again heard the robbers galloping in her direction; just then she noticed a poor old peasant with a cart full of boats for sale.

"Hide me, little father," she cried, "hide me under the last boat in your cart."

The man looked at her in surprise, and said,—

"But a maiden so beautifully dressed as you would soil her clothes under those boats."

"Never mind, little father; hide me for goodness'