lf face to face with Iwanich, without
hope of escape, he turned to him with false friendliness and said:
'Thrice my kind benefactor!'

But the Prince, without saying a word, seized him at once by his beard
and dashed him to the ground. At the same moment the foal sprang on
the top of the magician and kicked and stamped on him with his hoofs
till he died.

Then Iwanich found himself once more in the palace of his bride, and
Militza herself flew into his arms.

From this time forward they lived in undisturbed peace and happiness
till the end of their lives.

_THE MAGIC RING_

Once upon a time there lived an old couple who had one son called
Martin. Now when the old man's time had come, he stretched himself out
on his bed and died. Though all his life long he had toiled and
moiled, he only left his widow and son two hundred florins. The old
woman determined to put by the money for a rainy day; but alas! the
rainy day was close at hand, for their meal was all consumed, and who
is prepared to face starvation with two hundred florins at their
disposal? So the old woman counted out a hundred of her florins, and
giving them to Martin, told him to go into the town and lay in a store
of meal for a year.

So Martin started off for the town. When he reached the meat-market he
found the whole place in turmoil, and a great noise of angry voices
and barking of dogs. Mixing in the crowd, he noticed a stag-hound
which the butchers had caught and tied to a post, and which was being
flogged in a merciless manner. Overcome with pity, Martin spoke to the
butchers, saying:

'Friends, why are you beating the poor dog so cruelly?'

'We have every right to beat him,' they replied; 'he has just devoured
a newly-killed pig.'

'Leave off beating him,' said Martin, 'and sell him to me instead.'

'If you choose to buy him,' answered the butchers derisively; 'but for
such a treasure we won't take a penny less than a hundred florins.'

'A hundred!' exclaimed Martin. 'Well, so be it, if you will not take
less;' and, taking the money out of his pocket, he handed it over in
exchange for the dog, whose name was Schurka.

When Martin got home, his mother met him with the question:

'Well, what have you bought?'

'Schurka, the dog,' replied Martin, pointing to his new possession.
Whereupon his mother became very angry, and abused him roundly. He
ought to be ashamed of himself, when there was scarcely a handful of
meal in the house