lake he heard a
little voice crying out:

"Help me, brother, help me and--who knows?--some day I may help you!"

The Prince looked down and saw a fish that was floundering on the sand.
He dismounted to get the fish and throw it back into the water.

"Take one of my scales," the fish said. "Then if ever you need my help
just rub the scale."

So the Prince, before he threw the fish into the lake, scraped off a
scale and tied it in a corner of his handkerchief. Then he rode on.

The second day a fox that had been caught in a trap called out to him:

"Help me, brother, help me and--who knows?--some day I may help you!"

The Prince opened the trap and the fox, before it limped away, gave the
Prince one of its hairs and said:

"If ever you need me, rub this hair."

The third day he met a raven that had fallen on a thorn and was pinned
to the ground.

"Help me, brother, help me!" the raven begged, "and--who knows?--some
day I may help you!"

The Prince lifted the raven off the thorn and the raven, before it flew
away, gave the Prince one of its feathers saying:

"If ever you need me, rub this feather."

So the Prince reached the house of the Old Woman of the Mountain with
the fish's scale, the fox's hair, and the raven's feather each safely
tied in a corner of his handkerchief.

The Old Woman of the Mountain was an ugly old witch with a long nose
that hooked down and a long chin that hooked up.

"Ha! Ha!" she cackled when she saw the Prince. "Another one that wants
service with the Old Woman, eh?"

"Yes," said the Prince.

"You know the conditions?" the Old Woman said. "Guard my mare and her
foal for three nights in succession and you may have any horse in my
stable. But if she escapes you, then your head is mine and I'll stick it
up there as a warning to other rash young men."

The Old Woman pointed to a high picket fence that surrounded the
courtyard. On every picket but one there was a grinning human skull. The
Prince looked and the only picket that had no skull called out:

"I want my skull, granny! I want my skull!"

The Old Woman gave a wicked laugh.

"You see," she said, "we were expecting you!"

When night fell the Prince led out the mare and her foal to a grassy
meadow. To make sure that she would not escape him, he mounted her.
Midnight came and he must have fallen asleep for suddenly he awoke to
find himself astride a rail with an empty bridle in his hand. In despair
he looked in all dire