Page:The shoemaker's apron (1920).djvu/70

 So the two servants of the chest showed him everything—jewels and treasures and gold. Then they led him out into the gardens where the most wonderful flowers in the world were blooming. Yan plucked some of these and made them into a nosegay.

That afternoon, as he drove home his sheep, he played on his magic pipe and the sheep, pairing off two by two, began to dance and frisk about him. All the people in the village ran out to see the strange sight and laughed and clapped their hands for joy.

The princess ran to the palace window and when she saw the sheep dancing two by two she, too, laughed and clapped her hands. Then the wind whiffed her a smell of the wonderful nosegay that Yan was carrying and she said to her serving maid:

“Run down to the shepherd and tell him the princess desires his nosegay.”

The serving maid delivered the message to Yan, but he shook his head and said:

“Tell your mistress that whoever wants this nosegay must come herself and say: ‘Yanitchko, give me that nosegay.’”

When the princess heard this, she laughed and said:

“What an odd shepherd! I see I must go myself.”