ance, Krokus found himself in love, and beloved, and had that success which was promised to him with the third hull; nor did he regret being deprived, through the allurements of love, of the freedom of the heart. Although the nuptials of the tender pair were private, they were performed with as much pleasure as the most gorgeous wedding.
The Elf presented her husband, in the course of time, with three daughters. The enraptured father called the first-born Bela—the second, Therba—and the youngest, Libussa. They all resembled fairies in beauty; and although they were not formed of so fine a matter as their mother, still their bodily structure was far more refined than the coarser clay of their father. Besides, they were free from all the infirmities of childhood, as measles, hooping-cough, scarlet fever, &c. Nor did they want leading-strings, for after nine days they ran about like partridges; and as they grew up, they manifested all the talents of their mother, could discover secret things, and foretell the future.
Krokus also, in time, obtained a decent knowledge of these things. When the wolves had dispersed the flocks through the forest, and the shepherds searched in vain for their lost sheep and cattle,—when the wood-cutters missed a