him, ordered him to come inside, and gave him food to eat and also
supplied him with good clothes, asking questions:

[Illustration: "_The old man went begging from town to town_"]

"Dear old man, what can I do for thee?" he said.

"If thou art so very good," answered the poor father, without knowing
that he was speaking to his own son, "let me remain here and serve
thee among thy faithful servants."

"Dear, dear father!" exclaimed Ivan, "thou didst doubt the true song
of the nightingale, and now thou seest that our fate was to meet
according to the predictions of long ago."

The old man was frightened and knelt before his son, but his Ivan
remained the same good son as before, took his father lovingly into
his arms, and together they wept over their sorrow.

Several days passed by and the old father felt courage to ask his son,
the korolevitch:

"Tell me, my son, how was it that thou didst not perish in the boat?"

Ivan Korolevitch laughed gayly.

"I presume," he answered, "that it was not my fate to perish at the
bottom of the wide sea, but my fate was to marry the korolevna, my
beautiful wife, and to sweeten the old age of my dear father."