he moon. As they came nearer, she saw
that the roof was covered with thatch, over which the moss had grown
green. It was a very simple, humble place, not in the least terrible to
look at, and yet, as soon as she saw it, her fear again awoke, and
always, as soon as her fear awoke, the trust of the princess fell into
a dead sleep. Foolish and useless as she might by this time have known
it, she once more began kicking and screaming, whereupon, yet once
more, the wise woman set her down on the heath, a few yards from the
back of the cottage, and saying only, "No one ever gets into my house
who does not knock at the door, and ask to come in," disappeared round
the corner of the cottage, leaving the princess alone with the
moon--two white faces in the cone of the night.

III.

The moon stared at the princess, and the princess stared at the moon;
but the moon had the best of it, and the princess began to cry. And now
the question was between the moon and the cottage. The princess thought
she knew the worst of the moon, and she knew nothing at all about the
cottage, therefore she would stay with the moon. Strange, was it not,
that she should have been so long with the wise woman, and yet know
NOTHING about that cottage? As for the moon, she did not by any means
know the worst of her, or even, that, if she were to fall asleep where
she could find her, the old witch would certainly do her best to twist
her face.

But she had scarcely sat a moment longer before she was assailed by all
sorts of fresh fears. First of all, the soft wind blowing gently
through the dry stalks of the heather and its thousands of little bells
raised a sweet rustling, which the princess took for the hissing of
serpents, for you know she had been naughty for so long that she could
not in a great many things tell the good from the bad. Then nobody
could deny that there, all round about the heath, like a ring of
darkness, lay the gloomy fir-wood, and the princess knew what it was
full of, and every now and then she thought she heard the howling of
its wolves and hyenas. And who could tell but some of them might break
from their covert and sweep like a shadow across the heath? Indeed, it
was not once nor twice that for a moment she was fully persuaded she
saw a great beast coming leaping and bounding through the moonlight to
have her all to himself. She did not know that not a single evil
creature dared set foot on that heath, or that, if one shou