so she
laid herself down among the corn, and went to sleep.

Meanwhile Hans returned home, but Alice did not come, and so he said,
"Oh, what a prudent Alice I have! She is so industrious that she does
not even come home to eat anything." By and by, however, evening came
on, and still she did not return; so Hans went out to see how much she
had reaped; but, behold, nothing at all, and there lay Alice fast asleep
among the corn! So home he ran very fast, and brought a net with little
bells hanging on it, which he threw over her head while she still slept
on. When he had done this, he went back again and shut to the
house door, and, seating himself on his stool, began working very
industriously.

At last, when it was nearly dark, the clever Alice awoke, and as soon as
she stood up, the net fell all over her hair, and the bells jingled at
every step she took. This quite frightened her, and she began to doubt
whether she were really Clever Alice, and said to herself, "Am I she, or
am I not?" This was a question she could not answer, and she stood still
a long while considering about it. At last she thought she would go home
and ask whether she was really herself--supposing somebody would be able
to tell her.

When she came up to the house door it was shut; so she tapped at the
window, and asked, "Hans, is Alice within?" "Yes," he replied, "she
is." At which answer she became really terrified, and exclaiming, "Ah,
heaven, then I am not Alice!" she ran up to another house, intending
to ask the same question. But as soon as the folks within heard the
jingling of the bells in her net, they refused to open their doors, and
nobody would receive her. So she ran straight away from the village, and
no one has ever seen her since.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Lame Prince, by
Miss Mulock--Pseudonym of Maria Dinah Craik

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE ***

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