eantime I will cook my own supper."

With that the princess gave a graceful leap across the floor; her gray
velvet robe fluttered like a gray wing. Dorothy saw a little mouse scud
before her; then in an instant the princess had him! But the moment the
princess lifted the mouse, he became a gray pigeon, all dressed for
cooking.

The princess sat down on the hearth and put the pigeon on the coals to
broil.

"You had better eat your stew," said she; "I won't offer you any of this
pigeon, because you could not help suspecting it was mouse."

So Dorothy timidly took up the stew, and began to eat it; she was in
reality nearly starved.

"Now," said the Persian princess, when she had finished, "you had better
do that mending, while I finish cooking and eat my own supper."

Dorothy obeyed. By the time the apron was neatly mended, the princess
had finished cooking and eaten the pigeon. "Now, I wish to talk a little
to you," said she. "I feel as if you deserved my confidence since you
have penetrated my disguise. I am a Persian princess, as I said before,
and I am travelling incognita to see the world and improve my mind, and
also to rescue my brother, who is a Maltese prince and enchanted. My
brother, when very young, went on his travels, was shipwrecked on the
coast of Malta, and became a prince of that island. But he had enemies,
and was enchanted. He is now a Maltese cat. I disguise myself as a cat
in order to find him more readily. Now, for what do you most wish?"

Dorothy courtesied; she was really too impressed to speak.

"Answer," said the princess, imperiously.

"I--want," stammered Dorothy, "to--take my grandmother out of--the
almshouse, and have her sit at the window in the sun in a cushioned
chair and knit a silk stocking all day."

"Anything else?"

"I should like to--have her wear a bombazine gown and a--white lace cap
with--lilac ribbons."

"You are a good girl," said the princess. "Now, listen. I see that you
are not very pleasantly situated here, and I will teach you a way to
escape. Take your hood off that peg over there, and come out with me. I
want to find my portmanteau that I left under the hedge, a little way
down the road."

Dorothy put on her hood and followed the princess down the road. The
little girl could scarcely keep up with her; she seemed to fairly fly
through the moonlight, trailing her gray robe after her.

"Here is my portmanteau," said the princess, when they had reached the
h