htly, and turned his head.

The second girl had a carnation. The Tsar looked at her for a moment and
murmured:

"Dear me, this will never do!"

Then he looked at the Youngest Prince's bride and his eye kindled and he
said:

"Ah! This is something like!"

She gave him the spear of wheat and he took it and held it aloft. Then
he reached out his other hand to her and had her stand beside him as he
said to his sons and all the Court:

"This, the bride of the Youngest Prince, is my choice! See how beautiful
she is! And yet she knows the useful as well as the beautiful for she
has brought me a spear of wheat! The Youngest Prince shall be the Tsar
after me and she shall be Tsarina!"

So the little frog girl of whom her parents were ashamed married the
Youngest Prince and when the time came wore a Tsarina's crown.

[Illustration]

THE NIGHTINGALE IN THE MOSQUE

[Illustration]

_The Story of the Sultan's Youngest Son and the Princess Flower o' the
World_

THE NIGHTINGALE IN THE MOSQUE

There was once a Sultan who was so pious and devout that he spent many
hours every day in prayer.

"For the glory of Allah," he thought to himself, "I ought to build the
most beautiful mosque in the world."

So he called together the finest artisans in the country and told them
what he wanted. He spent a third of his riches on the undertaking, and
when the mosque was finished everybody said:

"See now, our Sultan has built the most beautiful mosque in the world
for the greater glory of Allah!"

On the first day when the Sultan went to pray in the new mosque, a
Dervish who was sitting cross-legged at the entrance spoke to him in a
droning sing-song voice and said:

"Nay, but your mosque is not yet beautiful enough! There is something it
lacks and your prayers will be unavailing!"

The words of the holy man grieved the Sultan and he had the mosque torn
down and another built in its place even more beautiful.

"This is certainly the most beautiful mosque in the world!" the people
said, and the Sultan's heart was very happy on the first day as he went
in to pray.

But again the Dervish, seated at the entrance, said to him in his
droning, sing-song voice:

"Nay, but your mosque is not yet beautiful enough! There is something it
lacks and your prayers will be unavailing!"

At the holy man's words the Sultan had the second mosque torn down and a
third one built, the most beautiful of them all. But when it was