few
minutes the pigeon will fly. Wait and see what happens.'

Every eye was fixed on the tall tower which stood in the centre of the
chief square, and the moment that the sun was seen to stand straight
over it, a door was opened and a beautiful pigeon, gleaming with pink
and grey, blue and green, came rushing through the air. Onward it
flew, onward, onward, till at length it rested on the head of the boy.
Then a great shout arose:

'The king! the king!' but as he listened to the cries, a vision,
swifter than lightning, flashed across his brain. He saw himself
seated on a throne, spending his life trying, and never succeeding, to
make poor people rich; miserable people happy; bad people good; never
doing anything he wished to do, not able even to marry the girl that
he loved.

'No! no!' he shrieked, hiding his face in his hands; but the crowds
who heard him thought he was overcome by the grandeur that awaited
him, and paid no heed.

'Well, to make quite sure, let fly more pigeons,' said they, but each
pigeon followed where the first had led, and the cries arose louder
than ever:

'The king! the king!' And as the young man heard, a cold shiver, that
he knew not the meaning of, ran through him.

'This is fear whom you have so long sought,' whispered a voice, which
seemed to reach his ears alone. And the youth bowed his head as the
vision once more flashed before his eyes, and he accepted his doom,
and made ready to pass his life with fear beside him.

(Adapted from _Tuerkische Volksmaerchen_. Von Dr. Ignaz Kuenos. E. J.
Brill, Leiden.)

_HE WINS WHO WAITS_

Once upon a time there reigned a king who had an only daughter. The
girl had been spoiled by everybody from her birth, and, besides being
beautiful, was clever and wilful, and when she grew old enough to be
married she refused to have anything to say to the prince whom her
father favoured, but declared she would choose a husband for herself.
By long experience the king knew that when once she had made up her
mind, there was no use expecting her to change it, so he inquired
meekly what she wished him to do.

'Summon all the young men in the kingdom to appear before me a month
from to-day,' answered the princess; 'and the one to whom I shall give
this golden apple shall be my husband.'

'But, my dear--' began the king, in tones of dismay.

'The one to whom I shall give this golden apple shall be my husband,'
repeated the princess, in a louder voic