Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/202

186 the big horse by the seaside to eat the grass at its leisure, and went up to the old oak and tried to shake it, but it was very firm. Again he shook, and harder than before; this time the old tree creaked. He tried once more, harder and harder, till the roots began to move in the earth; then the prince, exerting all his strength, pulled up the sturdy tree with one wrench, and down he fell on his back with it.

But he was up again in a moment looking round him; the roots lay scattered about like snakes, and where the old oak used to stand there was now a large and deep hole. In this hole Prince John found the iron box; he raised the lid and took out the hare by its ears. He had hardly torn it open when out jumped a grey duck and ran off towards the sea; but the prince quickly shot an arrow through the animal, which fell dead on the ground; but the egg, alas! rolled out straight into the sea, and fell to the bottom. Prince John sighed. Suddenly the pike appeared, and on seeing the prince in distress, dived down into the water, and after two or three minutes reappeared, and swam to the shore with the egg in its mouth and put it down at the prince's feet, saying,—

"You see now that within one hour I have been of use to you;" and with these words the pike dived back again, before the prince had time to thank it.

He took the egg, and, mounting his horse, left the Island of Booyan and crossed the mighty ocean.

The horse galloped along till he and his rider came to a very high rock, on which stood the im-