s' journey to the north of this mountain. When you find
her, if you do just as she says she, too, will soon be free of all
enchantment. Then she will be made queen."

The Prince thanked the hermit and rode on. After three days he came to
the city of which the hermit had told him. He made his way to the palace
and into the Princess's presence. Sure enough the Princess was his own
dear love. She received him with joy, promised soon to marry him, and
gave over to him the keys of the palace.

"You shall now be master here," she told him, "to go where you like and
do as you like. There is only one thing that you must not do, only one
place where you must not go. Under the palace are twelve cellars. Here
are the keys to them all. Go into eleven of them whenever you will but
you must never open the door of the twelfth one. If you do a heavy
misfortune may fall upon both of us."

One day while the Princess was walking in the garden, the young Prince
thought he would go through the cellars. So, taking the keys, he
unlocked the cellars one after another until he had seen eleven of them.
Then he stood before the door of the twelfth wondering why the Princess
had warned him not to open it.

"I'll open it just a little," he thought to himself. "If there's
something inside that tries to get out, I'll close it quickly."

So he took the twelfth key, unlocked the twelfth door, and peeped inside
the twelfth cellar. It was empty except for one huge cask with an open
bunghole.

"I don't see anything in here to be afraid of," he said.

Just then he heard a groan from inside the cask and a voice called out
in a begging, whining tone:

"A cup of water, brother! A cup of water! I am dying of thirst!"

Now the Prince thought to himself that it was a terrible thing for any
living creature to be dying of thirst. So he hurried out, got a cup of
water, and poured it into the open bunghole. Instantly one of the three
iron hoops that bound the cask burst asunder and the voice inside the
cask said:

"Thank you, brother! Thank you! Now give me another cup! I am dying of
thirst!"

So the Prince poured in a second cup and the second iron hoop snapped
apart and when the voice still begged for more water he poured in a
third cup. The third hoop broke, the staves of the cask fell in, and a
horrid dragon sprang out. Before the Prince could move, he had flown
through the door of the twelfth cellar into the eleventh cellar, then
into the tenth ce