"Spinning an apple in a saucer and staring at it, the little stupid,"
they said, as they strutted about the room, listening to the rustle of
the new dress and fingering the bright round stones of the necklace.

But the little pretty one did not mind them. She sat in the corner
watching the spinning apple. And as it spun she talked to it.

"Spin, spin, apple in the silver saucer." This is what she said. "Spin
so that I may see the world. Let me have a peep at the little father
Tzar on his high throne. Let me see the rivers and the ships and the
great towns far away."

And as she looked at the little glass whirlpool in the saucer, there
was the Tzar, the little father--God preserve him!--sitting on his
high throne. Ships sailed on the seas, their white sails swelling in
the wind. There was Moscow with its white stone walls and painted
churches. Why, there were the market at Nijni Novgorod, and the Arab
merchants with their camels, and the Chinese with their blue trousers
and bamboo staves. And then there was the great river Volga, with men
on the banks towing ships against the stream. Yes, and she saw a
sturgeon asleep in a deep pool.

"Oh! oh! oh!" says the little pretty one, as she saw all these things.

And the bad ones, they saw how her eyes shone, and they came and
looked over her shoulder, and saw how all the world was there, in the
spinning apple and the silver saucer. And the old father came and
looked over her shoulder too, and he saw the market at Nijni Novgorod.

"Why, there is the inn where I put up the horses," says he. "You