e day went by and two and three and still the Princess refused to eat.
In despair the Tsar sent out his heralds again. This time he said that
to any one who would make the Princess laugh he would give the
Princess's hand in marriage and make him joint heir to the kingdom.

"I had expected to wed her to the son of some great Tsar," he sighed,
"but I'd rather marry her to a farmer than see her die of starvation!"

The heralds rode far and wide until every one, even the people on the
most distant farms, had heard of the Tsar's offer.

"I won't try again," said Mihailo, the oldest son of the farmer I've
already told you about. "When I went there the day before yesterday I
began telling her a funny story out of my Latin book but instead of
laughing she said: 'Oh, send him away!' So now she'll have to starve to
death for all of me!"

"Me, too!" said Jakov, the second son. "When I tried to tell her that
funny story of how I traded the moldy oats for the old widow's fat pig,
instead of laughing she looked me straight in the face and said:
'Cheat!'"

"Stefan ought to go," Mihailo suggested. "Maybe she'd laugh at him!
Everybody else does!"

He spoke sneeringly but Stefan only smiled.

"Who knows? Perhaps I will go. If I do make her laugh then, O my
brothers, the laugh will be on you for I shall become Tsar and you two
will be known as my two poor brothers. Ho! Ho! Ho! What a joke that
would be!"

Stefan laughed loud and heartily and his little sister joined him, but
his brothers looked at him sourly.

"He grows more foolish all the time!" they told each other.

When they were gone to bed, Militza slipped over to Stefan and whispered
in his ear:

"Brother, you must go to the Princess. Tell her the story that begins:
_In my young days when I was an old, old man_.... I think she'll just
have to laugh, and if she laughs then she can eat and she must be very
hungry by this time."

At first Stefan said no, he wouldn't go, but Militza insisted and
finally, to please her, he said he would.

So early the next morning he dressed himself in his fine Sunday shirt
with its blue and red embroidery. He put on his bright red Sunday sash
and his long shiny boots. Then he mounted his horse and before his
brothers were awake rode off to the Tsar's castle.

There he awaited his turn to be admitted to the Princess's chamber. When
he came in he was so young and healthy and vigorous that he seemed to
bring with him a little of the fre