all-fours in the midst of it. He was a strange little being, with
piercing black eyes, immensely broad shoulders, and a beard of white
asbestos woven together like a woman's braid. As soon as he caught
sight of Hilda he shouted out to her:

'Get down on all-fours this instant! How dare you come into my kingdom
walking upright?'

Hilda was a good deal frightened at the way the King spoke; but she
answered resolutely, 'Your Majesty, I walked upright because there was
no time to lose, and I have come to ask you for the Golden Ivy-seed.'

'The Golden Ivy-seed, forsooth!' exclaimed the King, with a deep
laugh. 'What made you suppose, I should like to know, that there was
any Golden Ivy-seed to be got here? The Golden Ivy-seed is not given
to people with stiff necks, I can assure you; so get down on all-fours
at once, or else go about your business.'

Then Hilda remembered what Tom the Cat had told her, and down she
dropped on all-fours without a word.

'Now, listen to me,' said the King sternly. 'I shall harness you to
that plough in the place of my horses, and you must drag it up and
down over this field until the whole of it is ploughed, while I follow
behind with the whip. Hitch yourself to the shaft immediately. Come!'

When Hilda heard this command it seemed to her at first as if it was
impossible that she could obey it. For she was weary with her long
journey along the golden road and over the mountain of amethyst, and
the King's plough looked very heavy, and his whip very long; and,
besides, she thought it was much beneath the dignity of a princess
such as she was to be driven on all-fours through a ploughed field.
But the next moment the thought came to her of her poor little brother
Hector, standing in the hundred-and-first corner of Rumpty-Dudget's
tower, with his face to the wall and his hands behind his back. So she
said humbly:

'Oh, King of the Gnomes! I am so sorry for my brother Hector that for
his sake I will do as you bid me, in the hope that afterwards you
will tell me where the Golden Ivy-seed is to be found, so that Hector
may be saved from Rumpty-Dudget's tower.'

The King made no reply whatever, but he harnessed Hilda to the plough,
and she dragged it back and forth across the emerald field until the
whole of it was ploughed, while the King followed behind with the
whip. At last he unharnessed her.

'Now begone about your business!' he said roughly.

'But you have not told me where the Gold