out of the middle. It was the
same with the wine of youth; three sips were missing, one from the
top, one from the bottom, and one from the middle.

Somebody must have been there. The Fairy Aurora grew still more
sorrowful; it seemed to her as if she missed something, yet she did
not know what or where.

The water in the fountain was turbid. Water! Somebody has taken water
away from here! And the Fairy Aurora was wrathful. How had any one
been able to enter unperceived? Where were all the sharp-eyed guards?
The giants, the dragons, the iron-shod lions, the fairies, the
flowers, and the sun--what had they all been doing? Nobody had
watched! Had nobody been at his post? The Fairy Aurora now fell into a
perfect rage. "Lions! Dragons! Giants! set forth, pursue, catch, seize
and bring him back." Such were the orders of the Fairy Aurora in the
fury of her wrath. The command was issued and set her whole realm in
commotion, but Petru had fled so swiftly that not even the sunbeams
could overtake him. All returned sorrowfully; all brought sad tidings.
Petru had crossed the frontiers of the kingdom, had gone where the
Fairy Aurora's guards possessed no power.

The fairy queen now forgot her anger in her grief, and sent forth the
Sun to make seven days into one, to search, gaze, and bring tidings.
During this seven-fold long day the Fairy Aurora did nothing but watch
the course of the Sun; she gazed and gazed till the tears began to
stream from her eyes, I don't know whether from looking so long or
from her great sorrow and yearning.

Lo and behold! On the seventh day the Sun came home,--red, tired, and
sad. More bad news. Alas! Petru was where the sunbeams could not
penetrate.

When the Fairy Aurora saw that this last trial had also been vain, she
gave strict orders throughout her whole country that the fairies
should no longer smile, the flowers no longer send forth fragrance,
the breezes no longer blow, the springs no more pour forth clear
waters, nor the sunbeams shine. Then she commanded that the black veil
of darkness should be let down between the world and her empire, a
veil so thick that only a single sunbeam should pierce it, to convey
the tidings that the sun would not move through the sky until the
person who had taken the water from the fountain should come. And this
news went through the darkened world. The people agreed that the great
light had been solely for the emperor's eye-sight. Nobody in the world
saw e