Page:The shoemaker's apron (1920).djvu/89

 you’re so weak that even the suckling of the Earth Sow doesn’t tempt your appetite. Tell him nothing will help you but the Water of Life and the Water of Death and if he really loves you he must get you some of both. Then he’ll go off hunting the Water of Life and the Water of Death and that will be the end of him.”

Sharkan hid himself in the tenth chamber and Vitazko, when he entered the castle, found his mother alone.

“It’s no use, my son,” she moaned. “I can’t eat the suckling. Nothing will help me now but the Water of Life and the Water of Death. Of course you don’t love me well enough to get me some of both.”

“I do! I do!” poor Vitazko cried. “There’s nothing I won’t get for you to make you well!”

He snatched up his beech-tree again and hurried back to St. Nedyelka.

“What is it now?” the old woman asked.

“Can you tell me, dear St. Nedyelka, where I can find the Water of Life and the Water of Death? My poor mother is still sick and she says that nothing else will cure her.”

“The Waters of Life and of Death are difficult to