e
things and thought much of them.

Then the little good one threw herself on her knees before him,
weeping.

"O little father, Tzar," she says, "take my transparent apple and my
silver saucer; only forgive my sisters. Do not kill them because of
me. If their heads are cut off when the sun goes down, it would have
been better for me to lie under the blanket of black earth in the
shade of the birch tree in the forest."

The Tzar was pleased with the kind heart of the little pretty one, and
he forgave the bad ones, and their hands were untied, and the little
pretty one kissed them, and they kissed her again and said they were
sorry.

The old merchant looked up at the sun, and saw how the time was going.

"Well, well," says he, "it's time we were getting ready to go home."

They all fell on their knees before the Tzar and thanked him. But the
Tzar could not take his eyes from the little pretty one, and would not
let her go.

"Little sweet pigeon," says he, "will you be my Tzaritza, and a kind
mother to Holy Russia?"

And the little good one did not know what to say. She blushed and
answered, very rightly, "As my father orders, and as my little mother
wishes, so shall it be."

The Tzar was pleased with her answer, and he sent a messenger on a
galloping horse to ask leave from the little pretty one's old mother.
And of course the old mother said that she was more than willing. So
that was all right. Then there was a wedding--such a wedding!--and
every city in Russia sent a silver plate of bread, and a golden
salt-cellar, with their good wishes to the Tzar and Tzaritza.

Only the shepherd boy, when he heard that the little pretty one was to
marry the Tzar, turned sadly away and went off into the forest.

"Are you happy, little sweet pigeon?" says the Tzar.

"Oh yes," says the Little Stupid, who was now Tzaritza and mother of
Holy Russia; "but there is one thing that would make me happier."

"And what is that?" says the lord Tzar.

"I cannot bear to lose my old father and my little mother and my dear
sisters. Let them be with me here in the palace, as they were in my
father's house."

The Tzar laughed at the little pretty one, but he agreed, and the
little pretty one ran to tell them the good news. She said to her
sisters, "Let all be forgotten, and all be forgiven, and may the evil
eye fall on the one who first speaks of what has been!"

For a long time the Tzar lived, and the little pretty one the
Tzari