, and got into _them_. They were a good deal
worn, but fitted as if they had been made for him. On the table was a
purse with just three gold coins--old ones, too--in it; and this, as you
may fancy, the prince was very well pleased to put in his pocket. A
sword, with a sword-belt, he buckled about his waist; and the rest of the
articles, a regular collection of odds and ends, he left just where they
were lying. Then he ran downstairs, and walked out of the hall door.

CHAPTER VI.

_What Happened to Prince Prigio in Town_.

By this time the prince was very hungry. The town was just three miles
off; but he had such a royal appetite, that he did not like to waste it
on bad cookery, and the people of the royal town were bad cooks.

"I wish I were in 'The Bear,' at Gluckstein," said he to himself; for he
remembered that there was a very good cook there. But, then, the town
was twenty-one leagues away--sixty-three long miles!

No sooner had the prince said this, and taken just three steps, than he
found himself at the door of the "Bear Inn" at Gluckstein!

"This is the most extraordinary dream," said he to himself; for he was
far too clever, of course, to believe in seven-league boots. Yet he had
a pair on at that very moment, and it was they which had carried him in
three strides from the palace to Gluckstein!

The truth is, that the prince, in looking about the palace for clothes,
had found his way into that very old lumber-room where the magical gifts
of the fairies had been thrown by his clever mother, who did not believe
in them. But this, of course, the prince did not know.

Now you should be told that seven-league boots only take those prodigious
steps when you say you _want_ to go a long distance. Otherwise they
would be very inconvenient--when you only want to cross the room, for
example. Perhaps this has not been explained to you by your governess?

Well, the prince walked into "The Bear," and it seemed odd to him that
nobody took any notice of him. And yet his face was as well known as
that of any man in Pantouflia, for everybody had seen it, at least in
pictures. He was so puzzled by not being attended to as usual, that _he
quite forgot to take off his cap_. He sat down at the table, however,
and shouted "_Kellner_!" at which all the waiters jumped, and looked
round in every direction, but nobody came to him. At first he thought
they were too busy, but presently another explanation oc