"Perhaps," said he to himself, " that smoke is from my hunting pavilion."

So he went in the direction of the smoke, and came at last to a brickkiln. The brick burners came forth to meet him, and were amazed to see a man without clothing. They saw that his feet were lame and bruised, and his body covered with scratches.

"Give me to drink," said he, "and I would fain eat something also."

The brick burners had pity on him; they gave him an old tattered garment to wear, and a piece of black bread to eat. Never from the day of his birth had the Czar had such a tasty meal.

"And now speak, O man!" said they; "who art thou?

"I'll tell you who I am," said he, when he had eaten his fill; "I am your Czar. Lead me to my capital, and there I will reward you!"

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What, thou wretched rogue!" they cried. "Thou dost presume to mock us, thou old ragamuffin, and magnify thyself into a Czar! Thou reward us, indeed!"

And they looked at him in amazement and scorn. "Dare to laugh at me again," said he, "and I'll have your heads chopped off!"

For he forgot himself, and thought he was at home. "What! Thou!" shouted the brick burners, and

they fell upon him, and beat him most unmercifully, and then they drove him away, and off he went, groaning, into the forest.

He went on and on till at last he saw once more a smoke rising up out of the wood. Again he thought: "That is surely from my hunting pavilion," and so he went up to it.

And behold, he had come to another brickkiln. There, too, they had pity upon and kindly treated him. They gave him to eat and to drink. They also gave him ragged hose and a tattered shirt, for they were very poor people. They took him to be a runaway soldier, or some other poor man; but when he had eaten his fill and clothed himself he said to them :

"I am your Czar!"

They laughed at him, and again he began to talk roughly to the people. Then they fell upon him, and thrashed him soundly, and drove him away. And he wandered all by himself through the forest till it was night. Then he laid himself down beneath a tree, and slept until the morning, when he continued his journey.

At last he came to a third brickkiln, but he did. not tell the brick burners there that he was the Czar. All he thought of now was how he might reach his capital. These people too, treated him kindly, and

seeing that his feet were lame and bruised they had compassion upon him, and gave him a pair of very old boots. And he asked them :

"Do ye know by which way I can get to the capital?"

They told him; but it was a long, long road and a weary journey.

But he followed the road which they had pointed out. He went on and on till he came to a little town, and there the roadside sentries stopped him. "Halt!" they cried.

He halted.

"Whence art thou?" asked the soldiers.

"I am going to the capital," answered the Czar. "Thou art a vagabond," they cried.

So they took him to the capital and put him in a dungeon. After a time the custodians came round to examine the prisoner.

"Who art thou, old man?" they asked. Then he told them the whole truth.

"Once I was the Czar," said he, and he related all that had befallen him. They were amazed, for he was not at all like a Czar. For indeed he had been

growing thin and haggard for a long time, and his beard was all long and tangled. And yet, for all that, he insisted that he was the Czar. So they made up their minds that he was crazy, and drove him

away. "Why should we keep this fool forever," said they, "and waste the Czar's bread upon him?"

Then they let him go, and never did any man feel so wretched on God's earth as did that wretched Czar. Willingly would he have done any sort of work if he had only known how, but he had never been used to work, and therefore was obliged to beg his bread, and could scarce beg enough to keep body and soul together. He lay at night at the first place that came to hand, sometimes in the tall grass, sometimes beneath a fence.

"Who could have thought that it should ever come to this!" he sighed.

Now the angel, who had made himself Czar, had gone home with the huntsmen. And no man knew that he was not a Czar but an angel. The same evening the priest came to him and said:

"Do thy will, O Czar, and strike off my head, for I cannot blot out one word of Holy Scripture."

And the Czar said to him:

"Glory be to God, for now I know that there is at least one priest in my land who stands firm for God's Word. I'll make thee the highest bishop in this realm."

The priest thanked him, bowed down to the earth, and departed, marveling.

"What is this wonder," thought he, "that the

haughty Czar should have become so just and gentle ?"

But all men marveled at the change that had come over the ruler. He was now mild and gracious, no longer did he spend all his days in the forest, but went about inquiring of his people if any were wronged or injured by their neighbors, and if justice were done. He took count of all, and rebuked the unjust judges, and saw that every man had his rights. And the people now rejoiced as much as they had grieved heretofore, and justice was done in all the courts, and no bribes were taken. But the Czar, the real Czar, grew more and more wretched.

Then, after three years, an order went forth from the palace that all the people were to come together to a great banquet given by the Czar; all were to be there, both rich and poor, both high and lowly. And all the people came, and the unhappy Czar came too. And so many long tables were set out in the Czar's courtyard that all the people praised God when they saw the glad sight.

They all sat down at table and ate and drank, and the Czar himself and his courtiers distributed the meat and drink to the guests as much as they would, but to the unfortunate Czar they gave a double portion of everything. When all had eaten and drunk