Tzar of the Sea, and she kissed him back.

"O my little river!" says he; "there is no girl in all the world but
thou as pretty as my little river."

Well, they were married, and the Tzar of the Sea laughed at the
wedding feast till the palace shook and the fish swam off in all
directions.

And after the feast Sadko and his bride went off together to her
palace. And before they slept she kissed him very tenderly, and she
said,--

"O Sadko, you will not forget me? You will play to me sometimes, and
sing?"

"I shall never lose sight of you, my pretty one," says he; "and as for
music, I will sing and play all the day long."

"That's as may be," says she, and they fell asleep.

And in the middle of the night Sadko happened to turn in bed, and he
touched the Princess with his left foot, and she was cold, cold, cold
as ice in January. And with that touch of cold he woke, and he was
lying under the walls of Novgorod, with his dulcimer in his hand, and
one of his feet was in the little river Volkhov, and the moon was
shining.

"O grandfather! And what happened to him after that?" asked Maroosia.