fe!

He sent for his daughter and told her all that his servants had reported
and he said to her:

"My daughter, you, too, can help rid your country of this monster if you
go out with the shepherd to-morrow and when the time comes kiss him on
the forehead. You will do this, will you not, for your country's sake?"

The Princess blushed and trembled and the Tsar, looking at her in
surprise, said:

"What! Shall a humble shepherd face a dragon unafraid and the daughter
of the Tsar tremble!"

"Father," the Princess cried, "it isn't the dragon that I'm afraid of!"

"What then?" the Tsar asked.

But what it was she was afraid of the Princess would not confess.
Instead she said:

"If the welfare of my country require that I kiss the shepherd on the
forehead, I shall do so."

So the next morning when the shepherd started out with his sheep, the
falcon on his shoulder, the dogs at his heels, the bagpipes under his
arm, the Princess walked beside him.

Her eyes were downcast and he saw that she was trembling.

"Do not be afraid, dear Princess," he said to her. "Nothing shall harm
you--I promise that!"

"I'm not afraid," the Princess murmured. But she continued to blush and
tremble and, although the shepherd tried to look into her eyes to
reassure her, she kept her head averted.

This time the Tsar himself and many of his courtiers had gone on before
and taken their stand on the hill that overlooked the lake to see the
final combat of the shepherd and the dragon.

When the shepherd and the Princess reached the lake, the shepherd put
his falcon on the log as before and tied the dogs beside it and laid his
bagpipes on the ground. Then he threw off his smock, rolled up his hose,
and wading boldly into the lake called out in a loud voice:

"Ho, dragon, come out and we'll try a wrestling match! That is, if
you're not afraid!"

"Afraid?" bellowed an awful voice. "Who's afraid?"

[Illustration: _Next Morning the Princess Peeped Out and Saw the
Shepherd_]

The water of the lake churned this way and that and the horrible scaly
monster came to the surface. He crawled to shore and clutched the
shepherd around the waist. The shepherd clutched him in a grip just
as strong and there they swayed back and forth and rolled over and
wrestled together on the shore of the lake without either getting the
better of the other. The Princess without the least show of fear stood
nearby calling out encouragement to the shepherd and wa