Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/338

322 "Get up, sister mine," she said; "it is time to return home!"

"Dear me!" exclaimed the sister in alarm; "I have been fast asleep all the time, and have seen nothing. Shan't I catch it, when I get back to my mother."

She did. When she came home her mother said, "What did Princess Marie eat and drink?"

"I do not know; I saw nothing."

The mother flew into a dreadful rage; but on the following morning she sent her second daughter, Two-Eyes, into the fields, saying,—

"Go with Princess Marie, and watch her. See what it is she eats and drinks?"

Away went the two girls into the green fields to look after the little brown cow.

"Sit down on the grass, dear sister mine," said Princess Marie, "and let me sing you to sleep."

Two-Eyes lay down upon the grass, while the beautiful princess whispered to herself: "Don't watch, little eyes, but both go to sleep! Sleep away, sleep away, sister mine!" Then the princess began to sing, and her sister fell asleep till the evening, having seen nothing all the time, so that she also came in for a severe scolding on her return home.

Next morning the step-mother sent her youngest daughter, Three-Eyes, after Princess Marie, saying: "Go, my dear, and find out what Princess Marie eats and drinks."

When the maidens came to the green fields, Princess Marie said: "Sit down on the green grass, my sister, and let us have a chat!"

The girls sat down, and Princess Marie said to her-