on a trunk of a fallen tree,
wailing and moaning, and, of course, they thought it was altogether the
poor old woman lamenting for her son. They never thought of its being
also Pet, bewailing her dreary imprisonment.

One fine spring morning she went out as usual to pick her sticks, and
looking up from her work, she saw suddenly a beautiful, noble-looking
young figure on horseback spring up in a distant glade of violets, and
come riding towards her as if out of a dream. As the youth came near she
recognized his bright blue eyes and his silver mantle, and she said to
herself:

"Oh! I declare, it is the young Prince of Silver-country; only he has
grown so tall! He has been growing all these years, and is quite a young
man. And I ought to have been growing too; but I am left behind, only a
child still: if, indeed, I ever come to stop being an old woman!"

"Will you tell me, my good woman," said the young prince, "if you have
heard of any person who has lost a little gold key in this forest. I
have found--"

Pet screamed with delight at these words.

"Oh, give it to me, give it to me!" she implored. "It is mine! It is
mine!"

The prince gave it to her, and no sooner did it touch her hand than the
clock ran down, and Pet was released from her imprisonment in the old
woman. Instantly the young prince saw before him a lovely young maiden
of his own age, for Pet had really been growing all the time though she
had not known it. The old woman also stared in amazement, not knowing
where the lady could have come from, and the prince begged Pet to tell
him who she was, and how she had come there so suddenly. Then all three,
the prince, Pet, and the old woman, sat upon the trunk of a tree while
Pet related the story of her life and its adventures.

The old woman was so frightened at the thought that another person had
been living in her for seven years that she got quite ill; however, the
prince made her a present of a bright gold coin, and this helped to
restore her peace of mind.

"And so you lived a whole month among us and we never knew you?" cried
the prince, in astonishment and delight. "Oh, I hope we shall never part
again, now that we have met!"

"I hope we shan't!" said Pet; "and won't you come home with me now and
settle with my Government? for I am dreadfully afraid of it."

So he lifted Pet up on his horse, and she sat behind him; then they bade
good-by to the old woman, promising not to forget her, and rode o