"Little sweet pigeon," says he, "will you be my Tzaritza, and a kind
mother to Holy Russia?"

And the little good one did not know what to say. She blushed and
answered, very rightly, "As my father orders, and as my little mother
wishes, so shall it be."

The Tzar was pleased with her answer, and he sent a messenger on a
galloping horse to ask leave from the little pretty one's old mother.
And of course the old mother said that she was more than willing. So
that was all right. Then there was a wedding--such a wedding!--and
every city in Russia sent a silver plate of bread, and a golden
salt-cellar, with their good wishes to the Tzar and Tzaritza.

Only the shepherd boy, when he heard that the little pretty one was to
marry the Tzar, turned sadly away and went off into the forest.

"Are you happy, little sweet pigeon?" says the Tzar.

"Oh yes," says the Little Stupid, who was now Tzaritza and mother of
Holy Russia; "but there is one thing that would make me happier."

"And what is that?" says the lord Tzar.

"I cannot bear to lose my old father and my little mother and my dear
sisters. Let them be with me here in the palace, as they were in my
father's house."

The Tzar laughed at the little pretty one, but he agreed, and the