Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/231

Rh On the following day, when the skeleton had gone out, King Vladimir came back, and asked Marie-Marevna whether she had done what he had told her. She at once repeated everything, and gave her husband the magic handkerchief, which she had found.

Away went the king. He crossed over the fiery river, and walked on and on for many a day without a drop to drink or a morsel to eat. Suddenly he saw, on some bushes in front of him, a beautiful foreign bird with her young.

"I think I will eat one of those little ones!" said the king aloud, "for I am very hungry, and they look tempting."

"Please don't, King Vladimir," begged the foreign bird, "for I may be of use to you shortly."

King Vladimir obeyed, and continued his journey, when he found himself in a dark forest, where he saw a beehive.

"I suppose there will be plenty of honey here," he said; "I can at least satisfy my hunger with some, for a short time."

But the queen bee flew out and cried,—

"Do not touch my honey, King Vladimir! I may soon be of use to you, if you leave it alone."

The king went on farther, and met a lioness with her cub.

"I think I shall eat that little cub, if the mother does not eat me!" said the king, "for I am dreadfully hungry, and don't mind what I eat just now."

"No! leave my cub alone, King Vladimir," the lioness answered; "do not touch it; I may be of great use to you soon."