high hills, your forests, your plains, your rivers, and Everything in
all Russia."

And the Tzar, the little father, spun the apple in the saucer till it
seemed a little whirlpool of white mist, and there he saw glittering
towns, and regiments of soldiers marching to war, and ships, and day
and night, and the clear stars above the trees. He looked at these
things and thought much of them.

Then the little good one threw herself on her knees before him,
weeping.

"O little father, Tzar," she says, "take my transparent apple and my
silver saucer; only forgive my sisters. Do not kill them because of
me. If their heads are cut off when the sun goes down, it would have
been better for me to lie under the blanket of black earth in the
shade of the birch tree in the forest."

The Tzar was pleased with the kind heart of the little pretty one, and
he forgave the bad ones, and their hands were untied, and the little
pretty one kissed them, and they kissed her again and said they were
sorry.

The old merchant looked up at the sun, and saw how the time was going.

"Well, well," says he, "it's time we were getting ready to go home."

They all fell on their knees before the Tzar and thanked him. But the
Tzar could not take his eyes from the little pretty one, and would not
let her go.