hrough the sea,
promised that he would not boast, and then ran off to his father's
house. Long before he got there he heard the musicians in the
courtyard playing as if they wanted to wear out their instruments
before night. The wedding feast had begun, and when Ivan ran in,
there, at the high board, was sitting the Princess, and beside her his
eldest brother. And there were his father and mother, his second
brother, and all the guests. And everyone of them was as merry as
could be, except the Princess, and she was as white as the salt he had
sold to her father.

Suddenly the blood flushed into her cheeks. She saw Ivan in the
doorway. Up she jumped at the high board, and cried out, "There, there
is my true love, and not this man who sits beside me at the table."

"What is this?" says Ivan's father, and in a few minutes knew the
whole story.

He turned the two elder brothers out of doors, gave their ships to
Ivan, married him to the Princess, and made him his heir. And the
wedding feast began again, and they sent for the ancient old sailormen
to take part in it. And the ancient old sailormen wept with joy when
they saw Ivan and the Princess, like two sweet pigeons, sitting side
by side; yes, and they lifted their flagons with their old shaking
hands, and cheered with their old cracked voices, and poured the wine
down their dry old throats.

There was wine enough and to spare, beer too, and mead--enough to
drown a herd of cattle. And as the guests drank and grew merry and
proud they set to boasting. This one bragged of his riches, that one
of his wife. Another boasted of his cunning, another of his new house,
another of his strength, and this one was angry because they would not
let him show how he could lift the table on one hand. They all drank
Ivan's health, and he drank theirs, and in the end he could not bear
to listen to their proud boasts.

"That's all very well," says he, "but I am the only man in the world
who rode on the shoulders of a giant to come to his wedding feast."

The words were scarcely out of his mouth before there were a
tremendous trampling and a roar of a great wind. The house shook with
the footsteps of the giant as he strode up. The giant bent down over
the courtyard and looked in at the feast.

"Little man, little man," says he, "you promised not to boast of me. I
told you what would come if you did, and here you are and have boasted
already."

"Forgive me," says Ivan; "it was the dri