not be able to find my way.'

So the fox led her through the wood and far away from the palace until
they had gone miles and miles, and the Princess was so tired that she
would not go another step, not even to find a dove with a bandaged head.
So they both lay down and went to sleep.

It was late in the morning when she awoke and heard the birds singing
all around her.

Their song pleased her very much, and the fox, noticing this, remarked:
'Ah, if you could only understand what they are saying you would be much
more pleased.'

'Oh, do tell me, dear fox,' pleaded the Princess; and, after he had made
her ask him a sufficient number of times, the fox replied:

'Well, they are saying that the King's son, who was turned into a
serpent by his godmother to spite his father, has met with an accident
that now threatens his life. The spell lasted for seven years, and, on
the very day it ended, he was about to marry the daughter of another
king, when her father rashly burnt the skin and thus caused him to be
turned into a dove. In flying from the palace he has cut his head
against a window-pane, and is now at his father's palace lying so sadly
hurt that none of the doctors can do anything for him.'

The Princess was greatly concerned at hearing this story.

'But listen, dear fox, and hear if the birds say whether there is any
way of curing this poor Prince,' she said.

So the fox listened intently, and by and by he said to the Princess:
'The blackbirds are saying there is no way, but the wrens say there is
one. Whoever would cure the Prince must obtain the blood from these very
birds and pour it on the head of the Prince, when he will immediately
recover and be as well as he ever was.'

The Princess began to grow hopeful, and begged of the fox to catch the
birds for her so that she might obtain the remedy and restore the Prince
to health. She added a promise of reward for his assistance, and the fox
agreed to help her.

So they waited under the trees until the sun had gone in and the birds
were all asleep in their nests, and then the fox climbed stealthily into
the trees and gathered the birds one after the other, just like a
naughty schoolboy stealing apples from a farmer's orchard.

Having obtained what she required, the Princess set forth eagerly to
carry the remedy to the Prince's palace.

But the fox, who had taken care to keep well out of her reach, suddenly
sat down and began to laugh.

'Why do you laugh, d