'These are my daughters," said the king; "if you can find out which of them is Zlatovlaska, you will have won her, and may lead her away at once. If you cannot point her out, she is not destined for you, and you must leave this place without her."

Irik was in the greatest trouble, and did not know what to do. All at once something whispered in his

ear:

"Bz-bz! go round the table, and I will tell you which one it is."

It was the fly which Irik had rescued from death with the water of life.

"This is not the one-nor this-nor this;-but this is Zlatovlaska!"

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Give me this one from among your daughters,” cried Irik. “I have won her for my master!"

"You have chosen rightly," said the king. The princess rose immediately from the table, and removed the head-dress, and showed her golden hair, flowing in thick locks down to the ground; it was as bright as the rising. sun! Irik was almost blinded by its radiance. Then the king arrayed his daughter for her journey, according to her high birth and station, and Irik took her to his master to become his wife. The old king's eyes sparkled, and he leapt with joy when he saw Zlatovlaska; he ordered immediate preparations to be made for the wedding.

"I intended to have you hanged for your disobedience, that the ravens might eat you," he said to Irik; "but since you have served me so well, I will only have you beheaded and decently buried.”

After the execution, Zlatovlaska asked the old king for the dead body of Irik, and as the king could not very well refuse anything to his bride, he sent it to her. The princess joined the head to the trunk, sprinkled some of the water of death over them, and they immediately grew together so exactly that there was not even a mark left of the decapitation. Then she sprinkled the body with the water of life, and Irik got up as fresh as if he were newly born, and as hale as a deer; youth bloomed in his face.

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"How soundly I have slept!" said Irik, rubbing his eyes.

"Yes," said the princess, "you have slept soundly. Had it not been for me, you would have slept long enough."

When the old king saw that Irik was alive, and had become younger and handsomer than before, he, too, wanted to be made young again. He immediately

directed that the same should be done to him as had been done to Irik. Accordingly they beheaded him, and then sprinkled the body with the water of life over and over again, until there was no more left. But the head

would not grow to the trunk. Then they sprinkled it with the water of death, and the head grew immediately to the trunk. But the old king remained dead, for there was no water wherewith to bring him to life again!

But as the kingdom could not remain without a sovereign; and as there was no one so wise as Irik, who understood the language of the brutes and other living creatures, the people made him their king and the Princess Zlatovlaska their queen.

THE PLAGUE AND THE PEASANT.

(FROM THE POLISH.)

A PEASANT sat down in the shade of a larch tree to rest. The sun was high and glowing. Suddenly he perceived something approaching him from a distance. As it came nearer he saw that it was a woman wrapped in a large cloak. Her legs were of a wonderful length.

The peasant was greatly frightened, and tried hard to run away, but the spectre seized him with her bony arms, and said,

"Do you know the Plague? It is I. Take me on your shoulders and carry me over the whole country. You must not miss a town, a village, or even a hamlet; I must be carried everywhere. For yourself, be not afraid in the midst of death and misery you shall remain alive and well."

She put her long arms round his neck. The peasant started, but surprised at feeling no weight, he turned his

head, and then saw that the spectre was sitting on his shoulders.

He took her first to a town. There was music and dancing in the taverns, and joy in every place; mirth and pleasure held their sway. When the peasant entered into the market-place, the woman shook her pestilential garments. Soon the music and dancing ceased, joy disappeared, and terror reigned supreme. The terrified peasant saw coffins and dead bodies on every side. He heard the funeral bells everywhere. Soon the cemetery was filled and there was no more room to bury the dead. Even in the market-place many a corpse was left without a grave!

On went the miserable peasant. Whenever he passed through a village the houses were left empty. The inhabitants, pale and trembling, fled; men were dying on the roads, in the woods, and in the fields.

His native village stood on a high hill: there lived his wife, his little children, and his aged parents. At the sight of it his heart bled within him. Seizing the spectre with all his strength, lest she should escape, he hurried past his home.

Before him flowed the river Pruth, with its blue waters; on the other side arose green hills; and far beyond, dark mountains, capped with snow, lost their summits in the clouds. His resolution was quickly