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"He is a relative of mine,"said the old woman, "and his home is not very far from here. But come in and rest this night; the morning is wiser than the evening." 

So the girl entered and ate and drank what the old woman gave her, and slept till daybreak, when the other woke her and said: "Finist the Falcon with coloured feathers is now in the next Tzardom from here, beside the blue sea-ocean, where he stays - at the Palace, for in three days he is to marry the Tzar's daughter. Go now with God and take with thee this golden saucer and this little diamond ball. Set the ball on the plate and it will roll of itself. Mayhap thou wilt wish to give them as a wedding-gift to his bride." 

She thanked the old woman and started again on her way, and in the afternoon she came to the blue sea-ocean spreading wide and free before her, and beside it she saw a Palace with high towers of white stone whose golden tops were glowing like fire. Near the Palace a black serving-wench was washing a piece of cloth in the sea, whose waves it tinged with red, and the girl said: "What is it thou dost cleanse ?"

The servant answered: "It is a shirt of Finist the Falcon, who in three days will wed my mistress, but it is so stained with blood that I can by no means make it clean." The girl thought, "It is a garment my beloved wore after he was so cruelly wounded by the knives in my window!" And taking it from the other's hands, she began to weep over it, so that the tears washed away every stain and the shirt was as white as snow. 

The black serving-woman took the shirt back to the Tzar's daughter, who asked her how she had so easily cleansed it, and the woman answered that a beautiful maiden, alone on the sea-sand, had wept over it till her tears had made it white. "This is, in truth, a remarkable thing," said the Tzar's daughter; " I would see this girl whose tears can wash away such stains." And summoning her maids and nurses and attendants, she went walking along the shore. 

Presently she came where the merchant's daughter sat alone on the soft sand gazing sorrowfully out over the blue sea-ocean, and she accosted her and said: "What grief hast thou that thy tears can wash away blood ?" 

"I grieve,"answered the girl, "because I so long to see the beautiful Finist the Falcon." 

Then the Tzar's daughter, being very prideful, tossed her head, saying: "Is that all ? Go to the Palace kitchen, and I will let thee serve there; perchance as payment thou mayest catch a glimpse of him as he dines." 

So the merchant's daughter entered the Palace and was given a humble place among the servants, and when Finist the Falcon sat him down to dine, she put the food before him with her own hands. But he, moody and longing for his lost love, sat without raising his eyes and never so much as saw her or guessed her presence. 

After dinner, sad and lonely, she went out to the sea-beach and sitting down on the soft sand, took her little silver spindle and began to draw out a thread. And in the cool of the evening the Tzar's daughter, with her attendants, came walking there and seeing that the thread that came from the spindle was of pure gold, said to her: "Maiden, wilt thou sell me that plaything ?" 

"If thou wilt buy it at my price,"answered the girl. 

"And what is thy price?"asked the Tzar's daughter. 

"Let me sit through one night by the side of thy promised husband."said the girl.

Now the Tzar's daughter was cold and deceitful, and desired Finist the Falcon, not because she loved him, but because of his beauty and her own pride. "There can be no harm in that,"she thought, "for I will put in his hair an enchanted pin, by reason of which he will not waken, and with the spindle I can cover myself and my little mother with gold." So she agreed, and that night when Finist the Falcon was asleep, she put in his hair the enchanted pin, brought the girl to his room, and said: "Give me now the spindle, and in return thou mayest sit here til1 daybreak and keep the flies from him." 

All night the girl bent over the bed where the handsome youth lay sleeping, and wept bitter tears. "Awake and rise, Finist, my bright Falcon,"she cried. "I have come at last to thee. I have left my little father and my cruel sisters, and I have searched through three times nine lands and a hundred Tzardoms for thee, my beloved!" But Finist slept on and heard nothing, and so the whole long night passed away. 

And with the dawn came the Tzar's daughter and sent the girl back to the kitchen, and she took away the enchanted pin so that Finist the Falcon should awaken. 

When he came from his chamber, the Tzar's daughter said to him: "Hast thou rested well, and art thou refreshed ?" 

He answered: "I slept, but it seemed to me that someone was beside me all night, weeping and lamenting and beseeching me to awaken, yet I could not arouse myself, and because of that my head is heavy." 

And she said: "Thou wert but dreaming ! No one has been beside thee !" So Finist the Falcon called for his horse and betook himself to the open steppe a-hunting. 

As it happened before, so it befell that day also. Finist the Falcon had no eyes for the girl who waited on him at table, and in the evening, sad and sorrowful, she went out to the blue sea-ocean, and sitting down on the soft sand, took out the golden hammer and the ten diamond nails and began to play with them. A little later the Tzar's daughter, with her maids and attendants, came walking along the beach, and seeing how the hammer drove the nails by itself, coveted the plaything and desired to buy it. 

"It shall be thine,"said the girl, "if thou wilt pay me my price." 

"And what is the price ?" asked the Tzar's daughter. 

"Let me watch a second night beside the bed of thy promised husband."

"So be it,"said the Tzar's daughter; and that night, after Finist the Falcon had fallen asleep, she put into his hair the enchanted pin, so that he could not waken, and brought the girl to his room. "Give me, now, the golden hammer and the diamond nails," she said, "and thou mayest keep the flies from him till day-dawn." 

So that night too the merchant's daughter leaned over her beloved through the long dark hours, weeping and crying to him: "Finist my love, my bright Falcon, awake and speak to me ! I have come at last to thee ! I have journeyed to the fiftieth Tzardom of the eightieth land, and have washed the blood from thy shirt with my tears !" But because of the enchanted pin Finist could not waken, and at daybreak the girl was sent back to her place in the kitchen. 

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