o a tree of
heaven, and began descending by it. When it grew dark I made a knot in
the hair and just sat where I was. It was cold, so I took a needle which
I happened to have in my coat, split it up, and lighted a fire with the
chips._

"Oh, father!" the Princess cried, "Stefan says he split a needle into
kindling wood! Isn't he funny!"

"If you ask me--" the first lady-in-waiting began, but before she could
say more the Tsar reached over and stepped on her toe so hard that she
was forced to end her sentence with a little squeally, "Ouch!" The
Princess, you see, was smiling and the Tsar was hoping that presently
she would burst into a laugh. So he motioned Stefan to continue.

[Illustration: _Stefan Tells the Princess a Story_]

_Then I lay down beside the fire and fell asleep. While I slept a spark
from the fire fell on the hair and burned it through. I fell to earth
with such force that I sank into the ground up to my chest. I couldn't
budge, so I was forced to go home and get a spade and dig myself out. On
the way home I crossed a field_ _where the reapers were cutting corn.
The heat was so great that they had to stop work. "I'll get our mare," I
said, "and then you'll feel cooler." You know our mare is two days long
and as broad as midnight and she has willow trees growing on her back.
So I ran and got her and she cast such a cool shadow that the reapers
were at once able to go back to work. Now they wanted some fresh
drinking water, but when they went to the river they found it had frozen
over. They came back to me and asked me would I get them some water.
"Certainly," I said. I went to the river myself, then I took off my head
and with it I broke a hole in the ice. After that it was easy enough to
fetch them some water. "But where is your head?" they asked. "Oh!" I
said, "I must have forgotten it!"_

"Oh, father!" the Princess cried with a loud laugh, "he says he forgot
his head! Then, Stefan, what did you do? What did you do?"

_I ran back to the river and got there just as a fox was sniffing at my
skull. "Hi, there!" I said, pulling the fox's tail. The fox turned
around and gave me a paper on which was written these words: =NOW THE
PRINCESS CAN EAT FOR SHE HAS LAUGHED AND STEFAN AND HIS LITTLE SISTER
ARE VERY HAPPY.=_

"What nonsense!" the first lady-in-waiting murmured with a toss of her
head.

"Yes, beautiful nonsense!" the Princess cried, clapping her hands and
going off into peal after peal of merr