The Shoemaker's Apron: A Second Book of Czechoslovak Fairy Tales and Folk Tales. Fillmore Parker
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the princes were to come again, she would find out.
So for another month Yan tended sheep and plucked nosegays for the merry little princess and the princess waited for him at the palace window every afternoon and when she saw him she always spoke to him politely and said: "Please."
When the day for the second meeting of the princes came, the servants of the chest arrayed Yan in a suit of red and gave him a sorrel horse with trappings of gold. Yan again rode to the palace and took his place with the other princes but behind them so that the princess had to crane her neck to see him.
Again the suitors rode by the princess one by one, but at each of them she shook her head impatiently and kept her kerchief and ring until Yan saluted her.
Instantly the ceremony was over, Yan put spurs to his horse and rode off and, although the king sent after him to bring him back, Yan was able to escape.
That evening when he was driving home his sheep the princess ran out to him and said:
"Yanitchko, it was you! I know it was!"
But again Yan laughed and put her off and asked her how she could think such a thing of a poor shepherd.
Again the princess was not convinced and she said in another month, when the princes were to come for the third and last time, she would make sure.
So for another month Yan tended his sheep and plucked nosegays for the merry little princess and the princess waited for him at the palace window every afternoon and, when she saw him, she always said politely: "Please."
For the third meeting of the princes the servants of the chest arrayed Yan in a gorgeous suit of black and gave him a black horse with golden trappings studded in diamonds. He rode to the palace and took his place behind the other suitors. Things went as before and again the princess saved her kerchief and ring for him.
This time when he tried to ride off the other suitors surrounded him and, before he escaped, one of them wounded him on the foot.
He galloped back to the castle in the forest, dressed once again in his shepherd's clothes, and returned to the meadow where his sheep were grazing. There he sat down and bound up his wounded foot in the kerchief which the princess had given him. Then, when he had eaten some bread and cheese from his magic wallet, he stretched himself out in the sun and fell asleep.
Meanwhile the princess, who was sorely vexed that her mysterious suitor had again escaped, slipped out of the palace and ran up the mountain path to see for herself whether the shepherd were really with his sheep. She found Yan asleep and, when she saw her kerchief bound about his foot, she knew that he was the prince.
She woke him up and cried:
"You are he! You know you are!"
Yan looked at her and laughed and he asked:
"How can I be a prince?"
"But I know you are!" the princess said. "Oh, Yanitchko, dear Yanitchko, I beg you please to tell me!"
So then Yan, because he always did anything the princess asked him when she said: "Please," told her his true name and his rank.
The princess, overjoyed to hear that her dear shepherd was really a prince, carried him off to her father, the king.
"This is the man I shall marry," she said, "this and none other."
So Yan and the merry little princess were married and lived very happily. And the people of the country when they speak of the princess always say:
"That's a princess for you! Why, even if she is a princess, she always says 'Please' to her own husband!"
VITAZKO THE VICTORIOUS
There was once a mother who had an only son. "He shall be a hero," she said, "and his name shall be Vitazko, the Victorious."
She suckled him for twice seven years and then, to try his strength, she led him out to the forest and bade him pull up a fir-tree by the roots.
When the boy was not strong enough to do this, she took him home and suckled him for another seven years. Then when she had suckled him for thrice seven years, she led him out to the forest again and ordered him to pull up a beech-tree by its roots.
The youth laid hold on the tree and with one mighty pull uprooted it.
"Now, my son, you are strong enough," the mother said. "Now you are worthy of your name Vitazko. Forget not the mother who has suckled you for thrice seven years but, now that you are grown, take care of her."
"I will, my mother," Vitazko promised. "Only tell me what you want me to do."
"First," the mother said, "go out into the world and find me a splendid dwelling where I may live in peace and plenty."
Taking in his hand the uprooted beech-tree as a club and armed only with it, Vitazko set forth. He followed the wind here and there and the other place and it led him at last to a fine castle.
This castle was inhabited by dragons. Vitazko pounded on the castle gates but the dragons refused to admit him. Thereupon the young hero battered down the gates, pursued the dragons from room to room of the castle, and slaughtered them all.
When he had thrown the last of them over the wall, he took possession of the castle. He found nine spacious chambers and a tenth one the door of which was closed.
Vitazko opened the door and in the room he found a dragon. This dragon was a prisoner. Three iron hoops were fastened about his body and these were chained to the wall.
"Oho!" Vitazko cried. "Another dragon! What are you doing here?"
"Me?" the dragon said. "I'm not doing anything but just sitting here. My brothers imprisoned me. Unchain me, Vitazko! If you do, I will reward you richly."
"I will not!" Vitazko said. "A fine scamp you must be if your own brothers had to chain you up! No! You stay where you are!"
"With that Vitazko slammed the door in the dragon's face and left him.
Then he went for his mother and brought her to the castle.
"Here, my mother," he said, "is the dwelling I have won for you."
He took her through the nine spacious chambers and showed her everything. At the tenth door he said:
"This door is not to be opened. All the castle belongs to you except this room only. See to it that this door is never opened. If it is opened, an evil fate will overtake you."
Then Vitazko took his beechen club and went out hunting.
He was hardly gone before his mother sat down before the tenth door and said to herself over and over:
"I wonder what can be in that room that Vitazko doesn't want me to open the door."
At last when she could restrain her curiosity no longer, she opened the door.
"Mercy on us!" she said when she saw the dragon. "Who are you? And what are you doing here?"
"Me?" the dragon said. "I'm only a poor harmless dragon. They call me Sharkan. My brothers chained me here. They would have freed me long ago but Vitazko killed them. Unchain me, dear lady, and I will reward you richly."
He begged her and cajoled her until she was half minded to do as he asked.
"You are very beautiful," Sharkan said. "If only I were free I would make you my wife."
"Ah, but what would Vitazko say to that?" the woman asked.
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