ing.'
She handed him the little bell, and there disappeared hut and all, as
though the earth had swallowed her up.

Then it dawned on the Prince that he had been speaking to a good fairy,
and putting the little bell carefully in his pocket, he rode home and
told his father that he meant to set the daughter of the Flower Queen
free, and intended setting out on the following day into the wide world
in search of the maid.

So the next morning the Prince mounted his fine horse and left his home.
He had roamed round the world for a whole year, and his horse had died
of exhaustion, while he himself had suffered much from want and misery,
but still he had come on no trace of her he was in search of. At last
one day he came to a hut, in front of which sat a very old man. The
Prince asked him, 'Do you not know where the Dragon lives who keeps the
daughter of the Flower Queen prisoner?'

'No, I do not,' answered the old man. 'But if you go straight along
this road for a year, you will reach a hut where my father lives, and
possibly he may be able to tell you.'

The Prince thanked him for his information, and continued his journey
for a whole year along the same road, and at the end of it came to
the little hut, where he found a very old man. He asked him the same
question, and the old man answered, 'No, I do not know where the Dragon
lives. But go straight along this road for another year, and you will
come to a hut in which my father lives. I know he can tell you.'

And so the Prince wandered on for another year, always on the same road,
and at last reached the hut where he found the third old man. He put
the same question to him as he had put to his son and grandson; but this
time the old man answered, 'The Dragon lives up there on the mountain,
and he has just begun his year of sleep. For one whole year he is always
awake, and the next he sleeps. But if you wish to see the Flower Queen's
daughter go up the second mountain: the Dragon's old mother lives there,
and she has a ball every night, to which the Flower Queen's daughter
goes regularly.'

So the Prince went up the second mountain, where he found a castle all
made of gold with diamond windows. He opened the big gate leading into
the courtyard, and was just going to walk in, when seven dragons rushed
on him and asked him what he wanted?

The Prince replied, 'I have heard so much of the beauty and kindness of
the Dragon's Mother, and would like to enter her service.