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 with their cleverness.  And what happened to them I do not know, for they were never heard of again.

The Fool of the World saw them set off, with their fine parcels of food, and their fine clothes, and their bottles of corn brandy.

“I’d like to go too,” says he, “and eat good meat, with soft white rolls, and drink corn brandy, and marry the Tzar’s daughter.”

“Stupid fellow,” says his mother, “what’s the good of your going?  Why, if you were to stir from the house you would walk into the arms of a bear; and if not that, then the wolves would eat you before you had finished staring at them.”

But the Fool of the World would not be held back by words.

“I am going,” says he.  “I am going.  I am going.  I am going.”

He went on saying this over and over again, till the old woman his mother saw there was nothing to be done, and was glad to get him out of the house so as to be quit of the sound of his voice.  So she put some food in a bag for him to eat by the way.  She put in the bag some crusts of dry black bread and a flask of water.  She did not even bother to go as far as the footpath to see him on his way.  She saw the last of him at the door of the hut, and he had not taken two steps before she had gone back into the hut to see to more important business.

No matter.  The Fool of the World set off with his bag over his shoulder, singing as he went, for he was off to seek his fortune and marry the Tzar’s daughter.  He was sorry his mother had not given him any corn brandy; but he sang merrily for all that.  He would have liked white rolls instead of the dry black crusts; but, after all, the main thing on a journey is to have something to eat.  So he trudged merrily along the road, and sang because the trees were green and there was a blue sky overhead.

He had not gone very far when he met an ancient old man with a bent back, and a long beard, and eyes hidden under his bushy eyebrows.