r their mother's blessing, which she gave them,
kissing them on the forehead and on both cheeks. Then they made ready
for the journey and rode off to the capital--Evening on his horse of
dusky brown, Midnight on his black horse, and Sunrise on his horse
that was as white as clouds in summer. They came to the capital, and
as they rode through the streets everybody stopped to look at them,
and all the pretty young women waved handkerchiefs at the windows. But
the three brothers looked neither to right nor left but straight
before them, and they rode to the palace of the King.

They came to the King, bowed low before him, and said,--

"May you live for many years, O King. We have come to you not for
feasting but for service. Let us, O King, ride out to rescue your
three princesses."

"God give you success, my good young men," says the King. "What are
your names?"

"We are three brothers--Evening, Midnight, and Sunrise."

"What will you have to take with you on the road?"

"For ourselves, O King, we want nothing. Only, do not leave our
mother in poverty, for she is old."

The King sent for the old woman, their mother, and gave her a home in
his palace, and made her eat and drink at his table, and gave her new
boots made by his own cobblers, and new clothes sewn by the very
sempstresses who were used to make dresses for the three daughters of
the King, who were the loveliest princesses in the world, and had been
carried away by the whirlwind. No old woman in Russia was better
looked after than the mother of the three young bogatirs and men of
power, Evening, Midnight, and Sunrise, while they were away on their
adventure seeking the King's daughters.

The young men rode out on their journey. A month they rode together,
two months, and in the third month they came to a broad desert plain,
where there were no towns, no villages, no farms, and not a human
being to be seen. They rode on over the sand, through the rank grass,
over the stony wastes. At last, on the other side of that desolate
plain, they came to a thick forest. They found a path through the
thick undergrowth, and rode along that path together into the very
heart of the forest. And there, alone in the heart of the forest, they
came to a hut, with a railed yard and a shed full of cattle and sheep.
They called out with their strong young voices, and were answered by
the lowing of the cattle, the bleating of the sheep, and the strong
wind in the tops of the g