replied disdainfully, turning her back on the fire and
going towards the forest.

The great Setchene frowned, and waved his wand over his head.
Instantly the sky became covered with clouds, the fire went down, snow
fell in large flakes, an icy wind howled round the mountain. Amid the
fury of the storm Helen added curses against her stepsister. The cloak
failed to warm her benumbed limbs. The mother kept on waiting for her;
she looked from the window, she watched from the doorstep, but her
daughter came not. The hours passed slowly, but Helen did not return.

"Can it be that the apples have charmed her from her home?" thought
the mother. Then she clad herself in hood and shawl and went in search
of her daughter. Snow fell in huge masses; it covered all things, it
lay untouched by human footsteps. For long she wandered hither and
thither; the icy northeast wind whistled in the mountain, but no voice
answered her cries.

Day after day Marouckla worked and prayed, and waited; but neither
stepmother nor sister returned, they had been frozen to death on the
mountain. The inheritance of a small house, a field, and a cow fell to
Marouckla. In course of time an honest farmer came to share them with
her, and their lives were happy and peaceful.

THE SUN; OR, THE THREE GOLDEN HAIRS OF THE OLD MAN VSEVEDE

ADAPTED BY ALEXANDER CHODSKO

Can this be a true story? It is said that once there was a King who
was exceedingly fond of hunting the wild beasts in his forests. One
day he followed a stag so far and so long that he lost his way. Alone
and overtaken by night, he was glad to find himself near a small
thatched cottage in which lived a charcoal-burner.

"Will you kindly show me the way to the highroad? You shall be
handsomely rewarded."

"I would willingly," said the charcoal-burner, "But God is going to
send my wife a little child, and I cannot leave her alone. Will you
pass the night under our roof? There is a truss of sweet hay in the
loft where you may rest, and to-morrow morning I will be your guide."

The King accepted the invitation and went to bed in the loft. Shortly
after a son was born to the charcoal-burner's wife. But the King
could not sleep. At midnight he heard noises in the house, and looking
through a crack in the flooring he saw the charcoal-burner asleep, his
wife almost in a faint, and by the side of the newly-born babe three
old women dressed in white, each holding a lighted taper in her hand