es
except a pair of slippers and an old dressing-gown.

His friends did not trouble themselves any more about him; they would
not even walk down the street with him.

But one of them who was rather good-natured sent him an old trunk with
the message, 'Pack up!" That was all very well, but he had nothing to
pack up, so he got into the trunk himself.

It was an enchanted trunk, for as soon as the lock was pressed it could
fly. He pressed it, and away he flew in it up the chimney, high into the
clouds, further and further away. But whenever the bottom gave a little
creak he was in terror lest the trunk should go to pieces, for then he
would have turned a dreadful somersault-just think of it!

In this way he arrived at the land of the Turks. He hid the trunk in a
wood under some dry leaves, and then walked into the town. He could
do that quite well, for all the Turks were dressed just as he was-in a
dressing-gown and slippers.

He met a nurse with a little child.

'Halloa! you Turkish nurse,' said he, 'what is that great castle there
close to the town? The one with the windows so high up?'

'The sultan's daughter lives there,' she replied. 'It is prophesied that
she will be very unlucky in her husband, and so no one is allowed to see
her except when the sultan and sultana are by.'

'Thank you,' said the merchant's son, and he went into the wood, sat
himself in his trunk, flew on to the roof, and crept through the window
into the princess's room.

She was lying on the sofa asleep, and was so beautiful that the young
merchant had to kiss her. Then she woke up and was very much frightened,
but he said he was a Turkish god who had come through the air to see
her, and that pleased her very much.

They sat close to each other, and he told her a story about her eyes.
They were beautiful dark lakes in which her thoughts swam about like
mermaids. And her forehead was a snowy mountain, grand and shining.
These were lovely stories.

Then he asked the princess to marry him, and she said yes at once.

'But you must come here on Saturday,' she said, 'for then the sultan and
the sultana are coming to tea with me. They will be indeed proud that
I receive the god of the Turks. But mind you have a really good story
ready, for my parents like them immensely. My mother likes something
rather moral and high-flown, and my father likes something merry to make
him laugh.'

'Yes, I shall only bring a fairy story for my dowry,' said