ter for the night.
Presently they heard a little bell, such as is rung for prayer, and
the dog ran down a side path and led them straight to a kind of
grotto, at the door of which stood an aged hermit.

"Does a magician live here?" asked the prince.

"No one lives here but myself," said the hermit, "but I am old, and
have meditated much. My advice is at your service if you need it."

The prince then related his history, and how he was now seeking the
magician godfather, to rid himself of his gift.

"And yet that will not cure your temper," said the hermit. "It were
better that you employed yourself in learning to control that, and to
use your power prudently."

"No, no," replied the prince; "I must find the magician."

And when the hermit pressed his advice, he cried, "Provoke me not,
good father, or I may be base enough to wish you ill; and the evil I
do I cannot undo."

And he departed, followed by his friend, and calling his dog. But the
dog seated himself at the hermit's feet, and would not move. Again and
again the prince called him, but he only whined and wagged his tail,
and refused to move. Coaxing and scolding were both in vain, and when
at last the prince tried to drag him off by force, the dog growled.

"Base brute!" cried the prince, flinging him from him in a transport
of rage. "How have I been so deceived in you? I wish you were hanged!"
And even as he spoke the dog vanished, and as the prince turned his
head he saw the poor beast's body dangling from a tree above him. The
sight overwhelmed him, and he began bitterly to lament his cruelty.

"Will no one hang me also," he cried, "and rid the world of such a
monster?"

"It is easier to die repenting than to live amending," said the
hermit; "yet is the latter course the better one. Wherefore abide with
me, my son, and learn in solitude those lessons of self-government
without which no man is fit to rule others."

"It is impossible," said the prince. "These fits of passion are as a
madness that comes upon me, and they are beyond cure. It only remains
to find my godfather, that he may make me less baneful to others by
taking away the power I abuse." And raising the body of the dog
tenderly in his arms, he laid it before him on his horse, and rode
away, the dumb nobleman following him.

They now entered the dominions of another king, and in due time
arrived at the capital. The prince presented himself to the king, and
asked if he had a magician in