Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/58

42 regarded the money he had given her with disgust. What was it to her, if she was never to see her beloved son again?

Meanwhile the sorcerer, thinking that he would pay the "youngster" out for flying out at the window when last he bought him as a bird, rode him about for three whole days and three whole nights without giving the tired horse a moment's rest. He rode over stock and stone, up hill and down dale, until the perspiration poured down his face in streams. He was at length obliged to go home. When he arrived in his garden, he tied the unfortunate animal's head to a tree in such an uncomfortable position that the poor creature could hardly breathe.

"Well," said the sorcerer aloud to himself as he walked into the hut, "I think I have pretty well done for him this time."

"Done for whom, father?" asked his daughter.

"Why, for that young fellow I used to have, whom you took such a fancy to. There he is. Just look at him. Not likely to get away this time, is he?"

The damsel at once ran off into the garden, and on seeing the poor little pony tied up with his head high up in the air, she could not help being sorry for him, and angry with her father for his cruelty.

"Poor thing," she cried, "how my father has tormented you! How cruel of him to have tied you up like this, and without any food, too!"

She untied the horse's head very gently from the tree, and patted him fondly. But the horse loosened himself from her grasp, and, after thanking her, he bounded off into the fields and far away.