Page:The Russian story book, containing tales from the song-cycles of Kiev and Novgorod and other early sources.djvu/331

 him a second time, but after that it looked at the youth for a little time and said, "That will suffice, for if I push you a third time moist Mother Earth will not be able to bear you." So the Tsarevich rose to his feet, saddled his horse, and set out. His father and those about him saw him as he mounted, but they did not see him as he rode. It was only a smoke wreath on the open boundless plain and he was gone. Far, far away he rode until the day grew short and the long night came on. As the darkness fell the rider came to a house as large as a town, with rooms each as big as a village. At the great door he got down from his horse and tied the bridle to a copper ring in the door-post. Then he went into the first room and said to an old woman whom he found there:

"May God be good to this house. I should be glad to be permitted to spend the night here."

"Where are you journeying?" asked the old woman.

"That is not the first question," said the Tsarevich. "Give me food to eat and wine to drink, then put me next into a warm sleeping chamber. In the morning ask me whether I have slept in peace and then ask where I may be journeying." And the old woman did so, just as the Tsarevich had said.

Next morning she asked him the second question and he replied, "I was in my cradle when my father came to me and promised to get me Peerless Beauty as a bride. She is the daughter of three mothers,