Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/309

Rh "I was, indeed," the king replied; "I really thought I should drown."

Away they flew over stock and stone until they came to another blue sea, where the eagle again let the king drop. When he was up to his waist in water, the eagle flew down and saved him again.

"Were you frightened, O king?" asked the eagle.

"Yes, but still I thought you would save me."

Away they flew, till they came to a third blue sea; here again the eagle let the king fall into the waves, but when he was up to his neck in water the bird saved him and put him on his wings, asking as before,—

"Were you not frightened, O king?"

"I was, but I thought that you would most likely pull me out again."

"Well, king, you know now what it is to be afraid of death. I threw you into the sea, in return for something which you wished to do to me, a long, long time ago. Do you remember the day when I sat on the old oak-tree and you wanted to shoot me? Three times you intended to do so, but I begged of you to spare me, and thought to myself, perhaps he may destroy me, or perhaps he will befriend me and take me home with him."

After that they flew on farther until they came to the Twenty-seventh kingdom; then the eagle said to the king,—

"Look and see, O king, what is above us and what beneath us?" The king obeyed.

"Above us," said he, "are the heavens, beneath us the earth."