Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/61

Rh hawk, threw itself on to the cock, and sent its sharp claws into his breast.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo, brother," cried the cock. "Let me go! let me go!"

"Not I," replied the hawk. "Did you ever know a hawk to be such a fool as all that?"

And the unfortunate cock was torn in two. After that the hawk changed himself into a young man, so handsome that it would be simply impossible to describe him, or even to imagine his equal!

The princess fell so much in love with him that in a very few days they were married. Of course the old woman came to the wedding, and everybody was happy all round, especially the old woman.

"I never thought—I never dreamt—that he would ever marry a princess!" she cried in her joy. "Now I shall be able to spend the rest of my days in peace and happiness. This is what has come out of the apprenticeship that every one laughed at."

Her son did not keep up the arts which the sorcerer had taught him, but very soon forgot them all, as he had not much chance to practise now.

Many years after some other people went in search of the same kind of apprenticeship for their sons; but all in vain, for the last sorcerer had been killed, and with him died the wonderful trade.