--I am--sh!"

"I don't understand a word, Walter. But the women--why did you
want to----"

Poor innocent Leentje.

"The women were in the book--but listen, I am--sh!"

"And the cloisters?"

"That has nothing to do with it--I know everything now. Listen Leentje,
I am--sh!"

"For Heaven sake, Walter, what's the matter with you? You look as if
you were mad."

Walter had a vision. He stretched himself up, cast a proud glance
at the beams in the ceiling, placed his right hand over his heart,
extended his left, as if he were draping a Spanish mantle about
him--remember that he had never been in a theatre--and said:

"Leentje, I am a prince."

At that moment his mother came in, boxed his ears and sent him out
of the room.

Walter's principality was in the moon--no, much farther away.

In the following the reader shall learn how he had attained to this
new dignity.

Long before the beginning of this story--yes, a long time before
this--there was a queen of spirits, just like in "Hans Heiling." Her
name was A----o.

She did not live in a cave, but held her court far up in the clouds;
and this was airier and more suitable for a queen.

She wore a necklace of stars, and a sun was set in her signet-ring.

Whenever she went forth, the clouds flew about like dust, and with
a motion of her hand she drove away the firmaments.

Her children played with planets as with marbles, and she complained
that it was so difficult for her to find them again when they had
rolled away under the furniture.

The little son of the queen, Prince Upsilon, was peevish over this
and was continually calling for more playthings.

The queen then gave him a sack of siriuses; but in a short time these,
too, were all lost. It was Upsilon's own fault: He ought to have paid
more attention to his playthings.

They tried to satisfy him as best they could, but no matter what they
gave him, he always wanted something else, something larger. This
was a defect in the character of the little prince.

The mother, who, as queen of the spirits, was a very intelligent woman,
thought it would be a good idea for the little prince to accustom
himself to privations.

She issued an order, therefore, that for a certain time Upsilon was
to have no playthings.

The order was carried out. Everything was taken away from him,
even the comet that he and his little sister Omicron happened to be
playing with.

Prince Upsilon was somewhat stubborn. He s