ing. "The dragon told me,
ever so long ago!"

"He did n't tell you the rest, so stop laughing and listen to me," said
Lady Whimsical, with severity. "I knew all the while who you were and
what you wanted, and I pretended to be under a spell just to tease you."

"I know that, too," said the King, triumphantly. "The Wise Woman of
the Wood told me."

"Did she tell you that I came and hid myself here on purpose, because I
heard you were looking for a Princess and I wanted you to find me?"
asked the Lady Whimsical, softly.

"Nobody told me that," answered King Grumbelo; "I guessed it for
myself."

"What will the Professor of Practical Jokes say, when you come home
without the Princess you went out to find?" she asked mischievously.

The King had no time to answer, for at that moment the Professor of
Practical Jokes--whose profession always required him to arrive
unexpectedly in places where he was not wanted--appeared at the
apple-blossom gates and answered Lady Whimsical's question himself.

"There is nothing to say," he observed. "There never was a Princess
for your Majesty to find, so of course your Majesty has n't found her."

"There never was anybody for you to find except me," added Lady
Whimsical, who was nodding at the Professor as though she had known him
all her life. "The other Princess was a practical joke, don't you see.
Do you mean to say my dragon did not tell you _that_, too?"

"Then, who are you?" asked King Grumbelo in bewilderment. The Lady
Whimsical laughed, as she had laughed every day for a month when she
banged the door in the King's face.

"Can't you guess?" she exclaimed. "Why, I am just the daughter of the
Professor of Practical Jokes!"

And the King only wondered that he had not guessed it long ago.

As they went out through the apple-blossom gates, the dainty little
house of rose leaves vanished away because it was no longer wanted, and
so did the beautiful flower-garden, and the hedge of sweet-briar and
honeysuckle, and the sleepy good-natured dragon. They had no trouble
in getting home, for the Wise Woman of the Wood had a hand in the
matter, and the road came racing towards them as fast as an express
train; all they had to do was to stand quite still and wait until King
Grumbelo's country came hurrying along, which was the most convenient
way of travelling any one could possibly invent. When the city reached
them they found they were just in time to be married, for the pe