Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/97

Rh not very long to live. Death is already knocking at our door. But that you should not think us unkind, take this little box of needles and remember us. It may prove useful to you, for the needles are not of the common kind."

Prince Nekita took the little box, thanked the old women, and wept bitterly as he rode away, for besides feeling hungry and tired, he was very sorry for these two poor creatures. On rode the prince for a long time without meeting any one whom he could ask for something to eat, and without seeing any place where he could rest himself and his horse. At last he saw an old oak-tree; he went up to it, and asked it to shelter him for a few days; but the tree shook its branches, and replied,—

"Nay, Prince Nekita, I cannot shelter you, much as I should like to do so, for I have not long to live; death is knocking at my door!"

Prince Nekita again wept; it seemed to him that no one and nothing were to live very long.

On he rode, till at length he came to the noble dwelling of the Sister of the Sun. He stopped before the golden palace, and knocked at the door. The Sun's sister ran out to him and welcomed him warmly. She took him into her palace and gave him most delicious things to eat and drink, so that Prince Nekita felt himself in the seventh heaven of bliss, and in no hurry to leave. In fact, when the beautiful Sister of the Sun asked him to stay in her palace and make it his home, he did not think twice about it, but gratefully accepted her kind invitation; and as the years rolled on, the Sister of the Sun loved G