The Fire-Bird and the Falcon

Long ago, in a kingdom far away, there lived a tsar called Vislav. He had three sons. The oldest was Dmitri, the second was Vassili, and the youngest was Ivan.

Tsar Vislav had a wonderful garden. People said that there was no better garden in any land. Many rare trees grew there. Some of them gave sweet fruit, and some were only beautiful to look at.

The tsar loved one tree more than all the others. It was an apple tree, and every apple on it was made of gold. He often walked under it in the evening and counted the shining apples with a happy smile.

But one summer the apples began to disappear. Every morning there were fewer of them. The gardeners could not explain it. They found no footprints on the ground and no broken branches.

At last an old gardener stayed awake all night behind a wall. In the morning he came to the tsar with wide eyes.