ead abroad, and the princes of the
neighbouring kingdoms made many attempts to captivate her. Almost all
asked her in marriage. But she found none with enough sense, and so she
listened to all without promising herself to any.

At last came one who was so powerful, so rich, so witty, and so
handsome, that she could not help being somewhat attracted by him. Her
father noticed this, and told her she could make her own choice of a
husband: she had only to declare herself.

Now the more sense one has, the more difficult it is to make up one's
mind in an affair of this kind. After thanking her father, therefore,
she asked for a little time to think it over.

In order to ponder quietly what she had better do she went to walk in a
wood--the very one, as it happened, where she encountered Ricky of the
Tuft.

While she walked, deep in thought, she heard beneath her feet a thudding
sound, as though many people were running busily to and fro. Listening
more attentively she heard voices. 'Bring me that boiler,' said one;
then another--'Put some wood on that fire!'

At that moment the ground opened, and she saw below what appeared to be
a large kitchen full of cooks and scullions, and all the train of
attendants which the preparation of a great banquet involves. A gang of
some twenty or thirty spit-turners emerged and took up their positions
round a very long table in a path in the wood. They all wore their
cook's caps on one side, and with their basting implements in their
hands they kept time together as they worked, to the lilt of a melodious
song.

The princess was astonished by this spectacle, and asked for whom their
work was being done.

'For Prince Ricky of the Tuft, madam,' said the foreman of the gang;
'his wedding is to-morrow.'

At this the princess was more surprised than ever. In a flash she
remembered that it was a year to the very day since she had promised to
marry Prince Ricky of the Tuft, and was taken aback by the recollection.
The reason she had forgotten was that when she made the promise she was
still without sense, and with the acquisition of that intelligence which
the prince had bestowed upon her, all memory of her former stupidities
had been blotted out.

She had not gone another thirty paces when Ricky of the Tuft appeared
before her, gallant and resplendent, like a prince upon his wedding day.

'As you see, madam,' he said, 'I keep my word to the minute. I do not
doubt that you have come to