Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/336

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a certain kingdom lived and reigned a king and queen who had an only daughter, the beautiful young Princess Marie. Now it so happened that the queen died and the king married again. His second wife had three daughters, who were very remarkable to look upon; the eldest of them had only one eye, the second two, and the third and youngest of them had—three.

The step-mother, of course, took a violent dislike to the young Princess Marie. She hated her for her beauty, and tried all she could to spoil her good-looks and make her less attractive. She clothed her in the oldest dresses she could find, and gave her as little as she could to eat, in order to starve her. She would send the young princess into the fields dressed like a maid-of-all-work, and tell her to look after a favourite little brown cow; but she would never give her anything to take with her to eat, except a piece of dry bread. However, the princess did not mind all this. When she went into the green fields to look after the little cow, she would get in at the animals right ear and out at its left. As soon as she had done this, her shabby clothes would change into rich and beautiful garments, and she would find plenty to eat and drink provided; then she would walk