Page:Slavonic Fairy Tales.djvu/77

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Slavonic Fairy Tales.

Trojan asked him what he had observed, he answered, "I have observed nothing."

Then the emperor gave him twelve ducats, and said to him,—

"From this time forth you shall always come and shave me."

When the apprentice came home, his master asked him how he got on at the emperor's, and the youth answered,—

"All well; and the emperor has told me that I am to shave him in future."

Then he showed the twelve ducats he had received; but as to the emperor's goat's ears, of that he said nothing.

From this time forth the apprentice went regularly to Trojan to shave him, and for each shaving he received twelve ducats; but he told no one that the emperor had goat's ears.

At last it began to worry and torment him that he dare tell no one his secret; and he became sick and began to pine away. His master, who could not fail to observe this, asked him what ailed him, and after much pressing the apprentice confessed that he had something on his heart which he dared not confide to any one, and he added,—"If I could only tell it to somebody, I should feel better at once."

Then said the master,—