ther's palace where he had been born. The roof of the palace was
gone, and the walls were broken and crumbling. And little Prince Ivan
came slowly down from the turret, and his eyes were red with weeping.

"My dear," says the Sun's little sister, "why are your eyes so red?"

"It is the wind up there," says little Prince Ivan.

And the Sun's little sister put her head out of the window of the
castle of cloud and whispered to the winds not to blow so hard.

But next day little Prince Ivan went up again to that topmost turret,
and looked far away over the wide world to the ruined palace. "She has
eaten them all with her iron teeth," he said to himself. And his eyes
were red when he came down.

"My dear," says the Sun's little sister, "your eyes are red again."

"It is the wind," says little Prince Ivan.

And the Sun's little sister put her head out of the window and scolded
the wind.

But the third day again little Prince Ivan climbed up the stairs of
cloud to that topmost turret, and looked far away to the broken palace
where his father and mother had lived. And he came down from the
turret with the tears running down his face.

"Why, you are crying, my dear!" says the Sun's little sister. "Tell me
what it is all about."

So little Prince Ivan told the little sister of the Sun how his sister
was a witch, and how he wept to think of his father and mother, and
how he had seen the ruins of his father's palace far away, and how he
could not stay with hen happily until he knew how it was with his
parents.

"Perhaps it is not yet too late to save them from her iron teeth,
though the old groom said that she would certainly eat them, and that
it was the will of God. But let me ride back on my big black horse."

"Do not leave me, my dear," says the Sun's little sister. "I am lonely
here by myself."

"I will ride back on my big black horse, and then I will come to you
again."

"What must be, must," says the Sun's little sister; "though she is
more likely to eat you than you are to save them. You shall go. But
you must take with you a magic comb, a magic brush, and two apples of
youth. These apples would make young once more the oldest things on
earth."

Then she kissed little Prince Ivan, and he climbed up on his big
black horse, and leapt out of the window of the castle down on the end
of the world, and galloped off on his way back over the wide world.

He came to Mountain-tosser, the giant. There was only one