Atondido Stories
Yan gave it to her at once and she thanked him sweetly.
The next day Yan went again to the castle garden and
plucked another nosegay. Then in the afternoon he drove his
sheep through the village as before, playing his pipe. The prin-
cess was standing at the palace window waiting to see him.
When the wind brought her a whiff of the fresh nosegay that
was even more fragrant than the first one, she ran out to Yan and
said:
"Yanitchko, please give me that nosegay."
But Yan smiled and shook his head.
"Whoever wants this nosegay must say: 'My dear Yanitchko,
I beg you most politely please to give me that nosegay.'"
"My dear Yanitchko," the princess repeated demurely, "I beg
you most politely please to give me that nosegay."
So Yan gave her the second nosegay. The princess put it in
her window and the fragrance filled the village until people
from far and near came to see it.
After that every day Yan gathered a nosegay for the princess
and every day the princess stood at the palace window waiting
to see the handsome shepherd. And always when she asked for
the nosegay, she said: "Please."
In this way a month went by and the day arrived when the
neighboring princes were to come to meet the princess. They
were to come in fine array, the people said, and the princess had
ready a kerchief and a ring for the one who would please her
most.
Yan planted the ax in the meadow and, leaving the sheep to
graze about it, went to the castle where he ordered the servants
of the chest to dress him as befitted his rank. They put a white
suit upon him and gave him a white horse with trappings of sil-
ver.
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