IVAN GOLIK AND THE SERPENTS. 263

“What would I make of them, dear father? I
would make me good barns and store-houses out of
them. I would cut them down and plane the timber
well, and goodly should be the planks I should make
of them.”

“Good, my son!” replicd the prince, “thou wilt
make a careful householder.”

Then he asked his younger son: ‘ And what wouldst
thou make out of these oaks, my son ?”

“Well, dear father,” said he, “ had I only as much
power as will, I would cut down the middle oak, lay
it across the other two, and hang up every prince
and every noble in the wide world.”

Then the prince shook his head and was silent.

Presently they came to the sea, and all three stood
still and looked at it, and watched the fishes play.
Then, suddenly, the prince caught hold of his younger
son, and pitched him right imto the sea. ‘‘ Perish!”
eried he, “for ’tis but just that such a wretch as thou
shouldst perish !”

Now, just as the father pitched his younger son
into the sea, a great whale-fish was coming along and
swallowed him, and into its maw he went. There
he found wagons with horses and oxen harnessed. to
them, all of which the fish had also gobbled. So he
went rummaging about these wagons to see what was
in them, and he found that one of the wagons was