clever was he, that every shilling he
put out brought him a crown; and so he continued till he died. His son
inherited his wealth, and he lived a merry life with it; he went to
a masquerade every night, made kites out of five pound notes, and
threw pieces of gold into the sea instead of stones, making ducks
and drakes of them. In this manner he soon lost all his money. At last
he had nothing left but a pair of slippers, an old dressing-gown,
and four shillings. And now all his friends deserted him, they could
not walk with him in the streets; but one of them, who was very
good-natured, sent him an old trunk with this message, "Pack up!"
"Yes," he said, "it is all very well to say 'pack up,'" but he had
nothing left to pack up, therefore he seated himself in the trunk.
It was a very wonderful trunk; no sooner did any one press on the lock
than the trunk could fly. He shut the lid and pressed the lock, when
away flew the trunk up the chimney with the merchant's son in it,
right up into the clouds. Whenever the bottom of the trunk cracked, he
was in a great fright, for if the trunk fell to pieces he would have
made a tremendous somerset over the trees. However, he got safely in
his trunk to the land of Turkey. He hid the trunk in the wood under
some dry leaves, and then went into the town: he could so this very
well, for the Turks always go about dressed in dressing-gowns and
slippers, as he was himself. He happened to meet a nurse with a little
child. "I say, you Turkish nurse," cried he, "what castle is that near
the town, with the windows placed so high?"

"The king's daughter lives there," she replied; "it has been
prophesied that she will be very unhappy about a lover, and
therefore no one is allowed to visit her, unless the king and queen
are present."

"Thank you," said the merchant's son. So he went back to the wood,
seated himself in his trunk, flew up to the roof of the castle, and
crept through the window into the princess's room. She lay on the sofa
asleep, and she was so beautiful that the merchant's son could not
help kissing her. Then she awoke, and was very much frightened; but he
told her he was a Turkish angel, who had come down through the air
to see her, which pleased her very much. He sat down by her side and
talked to her: he said her eyes were like beautiful dark lakes, in
which the thoughts swam about like little mermaids, and he told her
that her forehead was a snowy mountain, which contained sp