as simple as a child, simpler than some children, and he never did any
one a harm in his life.

Well, it always happens like that. The father and mother thought a lot
of the two smart young men; but the Fool of the World was lucky if he
got enough to eat, because they always forgot him unless they happened
to be looking at him, and sometimes even then.

But however it was with his father and mother, this is a story that
shows that God loves simple folk, and turns things to their advantage
in the end.

For it happened that the Tzar of that country sent out messengers
along the highroads and the rivers, even to huts in the forest like
ours, to say that he would give his daughter, the Princess, in
marriage to any one who could bring him a flying ship--ay, a ship with
wings, that should sail this way and that through the blue sky, like a
ship sailing on the sea.

"This is a chance for us," said the two clever brothers; and that
same day they set off together, to see if one of them could not build
the flying ship and marry the Tzar's daughter, and so be a great man
indeed.

And their father blessed them, and gave them finer clothes than ever
he wore himself. And their mother made them up hampers of food for the
road, soft white rolls, and several kinds of cooked meats, and bottles
of corn brandy. She went with them as far as the highroad, and waved
her hand to them till they were out of sight. And so the two clever
brothers set merrily off on their adventure, to see what could be done