Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/213

 Rh themselves; but if they are not destined for you, you will not pluck them whatever you do. When you are on your return, and are hungry or thirsty, cut one of the lemons into halves, and you will eat and drink your fill. And now go, and God be with you! But stay! I won't let you go hungry. Mother, here with the dumplings!" Jezibaba set a large golden dish on the table. "Eat!" said her son to the prince; "or, if you don't want to do so now, put some into your pocket; you will eat them on the road." The prince had no desire to eat, but put some into his pocket, saying that he would eat them on the road. He then thanked him courteously for his hospitality and counsel, and proceeded further.

Swiftly he paced from hill into dale, from dale on to a fresh hill, and never stopped till he was beneath the glass hill itself. There he stopped as if turned to stone. The hill was high and smooth; there wasn't a single crack in it. On the top spread the branches of a wondrous tree, and on the tree swung three lemons, whose scent was so powerful that the prince almost fainted. "God help me! Now as it shall be, so it will be. Now that I'm once here I will at any rate make the attempt," thought he to himself, and began to climb up the smooth glass; but scarcely had he ascended a few fathoms when his foot slipped, and he himself pop down the hill, so that he didn't know where he was, what he was, till he found himself on the ground at the bottom. Wearied out, he began to throw away the dumplings, thinking that their weight was a hindrance to him. He threw way the first, and lo! the dumpling fixed itself on the glass hill. He threw a second and a third, and saw before him three steps, on which he could stand with safety. The prince was overjoyed. He kept throwing the dumplings before him, and in every case steps formed themselves from them for him. First he threw the leaden ones, then the silver, and then the golden ones. By the thus constructed steps he ascended higher and higher, till he happily attained the topmost ridge of the glass hill. Here he knelt down under the tree and held up his hands, and lo! the three beautiful lemons flew down of themselves into the palms of his hands. The tree disappeared, the glass hill crashed and vanished, and when the prince came to himself there was no tree, no hill, but a wide plain lay extended before him.