Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/79

Rh Ivan sighed, and when his brothers had gone he went out into the fields and wept bitterly, for he longed to be at the feast. Suddenly, to his surprise, he saw a beautiful chestnut horse galloping towards him; and the earth beneath the creature trembled. From his ears came fire, and from his nostrils issued forth smoke.

"Do not grieve, Ivan," said the horse in a voice that sounded like thunder. "I know what it is you want, and shall try to help you; but first get in at my right ear, and then out at my left."

Ivan obeyed, wondering all the time what it all meant, it was such an extraordinary animal this horse. When Ivan climbed out of the horse's left ear, he found himself dressed in such beautiful clothes that he hardly knew himself again; had he only seen his face he would have been still more astonished: he looked so clean and so handsome. After this the horse ordered him to get on his back, and away they rode over stock and stone, up hill and down dale, till at last they reached the palace, where at one of the windows sat the king's daughter, as beautiful as the day, and on her finger was a diamond ring, which shone like fire in the sunshine. It so happened that a wicked fairy, who had had a spite against the princess, came to the palace one day, and cast a spell upon this beautiful girl, in consequence of which she could never marry until some handsome youth should be able to leap from the ground to the high window, or rather balcony, on which she sat night and day without moving, and take from her finger the diamond ring. But somehow no one