to the right or the left, and let no living thing touch you,
for if you do you shall never leave the island. Drop the second ball
into the water, as you did the first, and when the boat comes step in
at once. Then you may look behind you, and you shall see what you shall
see, and you'll know which you love best, the Princess Eileen or the
Princess Kathleen, and you can either go or stay."

The prince didn't sleep a wink that night, and at the first glimpse of
the morning he stole from the palace. When he reached the sea he threw
out the ball, and when it had floated out of sight, he saw the little
boat sparkling on the horizon like a newly-risen star. The prince had
scarcely passed through the palace doors when he was missed, and the
king and queen and the princess, and all the lords and ladies of the
court, went in search of him, taking the quickest way to the sea. While
the maidens with the silver harps played sweetest music, the princess,
whose voice was sweeter than any music, called on the prince by his
name, and so moved his heart that he was about to look behind, when he
remembered how the cat had told him he should not do so until he was in
the boat. Just as it touched the shore the princess put out her hand and
almost caught the prince's arm, but he stepped into the boat in time
to save himself, and it sped away like a receding wave. A loud scream
caused the prince to look round suddenly, and when he did he saw no sign
of king or queen, or princess, or lords or ladies, but only big green
serpents, with red eyes and tongues, that hissed out fire and poison as
they writhed in a hundred horrible coils.

The prince, having escaped from the enchanted island, sailed away for
three days and three nights, and every night he hoped the coming morning
would show him the island he was in search of. He was faint with hunger
and beginning to despair, when on the fourth morning he saw in the
distance an island that, in the first rays of the sun, gleamed like
fire. On coming closer to it he saw that it was clad with trees, so
covered with bright red berries that hardly a leaf was to be seen. Soon
the boat was almost within a stone's cast of the island, and it began to
sail round and round until it was well under the bending branches. The
scent of the berries was so sweet that it sharpened the prince's hunger,
and he longed to pluck them; but, remembering what had happened to him
on the enchanted island, he was afraid to touch