eply, and ate as fast as he could. When he had quite finished, he
got up and stretched himself.

'You have got a comfortable-looking bed there,' he observed. 'I really
think that, bad sleeper as I am, I might have a good night on it. I can
manage to squeeze you in,' he added; 'you don't take up a great deal of
room.' The boy was rather indignant at the bear's cool way of talking;
but as he was too tired to gather more fern, they lay down side by side,
and never stirred till sunrise next morning.

'I must go now,' said the bear, pulling the sleepy prince on to his
feet; 'but first you shall cut off the tip of my ear, and when you are
in any danger just wish yourself a bear and you will become one. One
good turn deserves another, you know.' And the boy did as he was bid,
and he and the bear bade each other farewell.

'I wonder how it feels to be a bear,' thought he to himself when he had
walked a little way; and he took out the tip from the breast of his coat
and wished hard that he might become a bear. The next moment his body
stretched out and thick black fur covered him all over. As before, his
hands were changed into paws, but when he tried to switch his tail
he found to his disgust that it would not go any distance. 'Why it
is hardly worth calling a tail!' said he. For the rest of the day he
remained a bear and continued his journey, but as evening came on the
bear-skin, which had been so useful when plunging through brambles in
the forest, felt rather heavy, and he wished himself a boy again. He was
too much exhausted to take the trouble of cutting any fern or seeking
for moss, but just threw himself down under a tree, when exactly
above his head he heard a great buzzing as a bumble-bee alighted on a
honeysuckle branch. 'What are you doing here?' asked the bee in a cross
voice; 'at your age you ought to be safe at home.'

'I am running away from the mermaid,' replied the boy; but the bee, like
the lion and the bear, was one of those people who never listen to
the answers to their questions, and only said: 'I am hungry. Give me
something to eat.'

The boy took his last loaf and flask out of his knapsack and laid them
on the ground, and they had supper together. 'Well, now I am going to
sleep,' observed the bee when the last crumb was gone, 'but as you are
not very big I can make room for you beside me,' and he curled up his
wings, and tucked in his legs, and he and the prince both slept soundly
till morning. The