How they comforted him, and how quickly he sprang up in answer to the
question! At last he was saved. That was as certain to him as that twice
two makes four, although it might have been otherwise.

Over the pool, from which the small voice had sounded, appeared now a dim
light, a beautiful goldfish lifted its head out of the water, opened its
round mouth, and said, in a scarcely audible tone,--for a real fish finds
it difficult to speak, because it has no lungs,--that George's godmother,
the fairy Clementine, had sent it. Its mistress was by no means pleased
with George's disobedience; but, as he was otherwise a good boy, and she
was pledged to aid the Greylocks, she would help him out of his
difficulty this time.

The boy cried: "Take me home take me home, take me to my mother!"

"That would indeed be the simplest thing to do," replied the fish, "and
it lies in our power to fulfil your wish; but, if my mistress frees you
from the power of the wicked Misdral, she must promise him in exchange
that another ill shall befall your house. Your army is in the field, and
if you return to your family, then will the giant help your enemies; they
will defeat you, will capture your capital, and possibly something evil
might befall your mother."

George sprang up and waved his hand in negation. Then his curly head
fell, and he said sadly, but decisively: "I will stay here and starve."

The fish in his delight slapped the water with his tail until it splashed
high, and continued, although his first speech had already made him
hoarse:

"No, no; it need not be so bad as that. If you are willing to go into the
world as a poor boy, and never to tell any one that you are a prince, nor
what your name is, nor whence you come, then no enemy will be able to do
your army or the lady duchess any harm."

"And shall I never see my mother and Wendelin again?" George asked, and
the tears poured down over his cheeks like the water over the
stalactites.

"Oh yes!" the fish replied, "if you are courageous, and do something good
and great, then you may return to your home."

"Something good and great," George repeated, "that will be very
difficult; and, if I should succeed in doing something that I thought
good and great, how could I know whether the fairy considered it so?"
"Whenever the grey lock grows on your head, you may declare yourself to
be the son of a duke and go home;" the fish whispered. "Follow me. I will
light the way for y