of an
appointment he had made with a pine forest, to get up an entertaining
imitation of sea-waves for the benefit of the forest nymphs who had
never been to the seaside, and he went off--so, of course, the bells
couldn't ring any more, and the Prince and Princess went on down the
dark road.

There was a cottage and the Princess pulled her veil closely over her
face, for yellow light streamed from its open door--and it was a
Wednesday.

Inside a little boy was sitting on the floor--quite a little boy--he
ought to have been in bed long before, and I don't know why he wasn't.
And he was ringing a little tinkling bell that had dropped off a sleigh.

And this little bell said:

Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, I'm a little sleigh-bell,
But I know what I know, and I'll tell, tell, tell.
Find the Enchanter of the Ringing Well,
He will show you how to break the spell, spell, spell.
Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, I'm a little sleigh-bell,
But I know what I know....

And so on, over and over, again and again, because the little boy was
quite contented to go on shaking his sleigh-bell for ever and ever.

'So now we know,' said the Prince, 'isn't that glorious?'

'Yes, very, but where's the Enchanter of the Ringing Well?' said the
Princess doubtfully.

'Oh, I've got _his_ address in my pocket-book,' said the Prince. 'He's
my god-father. He was one of the references I gave your father.'

So the next night the Prince brought a horse to the garden, and he and
the Princess mounted, and rode, and rode, and rode, and in the grey dawn
they came to Wonderwood, and in the very middle of that the Magician's
Palace stands.

The Princess did not like to call on a perfect stranger so very early in
the morning, so they decided to wait a little and look about them.

The castle was very beautiful, decorated with a conventional design of
bells and bell ropes, carved in white stone.

Luxuriant plants of American bell-vine covered the drawbridge and
portcullis. On a green lawn in front of the castle was a well, with a
curious bell-shaped covering suspended over it. The lovers leaned over
the mossy fern-grown wall of the well, and, looking down, they could see
that the narrowness of the well only lasted for a few feet, and below
that it spread into a cavern where water lay in a big pool.

'What cheer?' said a pleasant voice behind them. It was the Enchanter,
an early riser, like Darwin was, and all other great scientific men