, thinking he
had sat down upon a frog. "I'm sure you got me into the scrape."

"Now you're getting tiresome," said the Wizard, yawning. "I never liked
tiresome people myself."

"But I don't know what to do-oo!" sobbed the Prince.

At this the Wizard only gave a terrible laugh and vanished quite away
again, leaving the naughty young Prince to get out of his trouble as
best he could.

[Illustration]

IV

For a few moments Prince Vance continued to cry rather noisily, though
it must be confessed that it was more because he was so vexed at the
Blue Wizard than because he was at all sorry for what he had done.
Indeed, he did not even now realize that the trick was likely to turn
out a very serious thing; and after a while he dried his eyes, and
having collected his wits proceeded to collect also all the little
people and put them together at one end of the royal dining-table.

They made such a pretty sight, with their little court robes and tiny
jewels, that Vance was charmed with them and declared them to be more
interesting than white mice or even guinea pigs. He could hear them,
too, if he listened very closely indeed, quarrelling and blaming one
another for what had befallen them; and this was so vastly funny to the
wicked Prince that he rubbed his hands and fairly danced again with
glee. It was only when the palace cat, pouncing upon the Lord Chancellor
as he lay upon the window-sill, snatched him and carried him off in her
mouth, that Vance began to be a little frightened, and to realize that,
having made the whole family unable to protect themselves, it had now
become his duty to care for them and see that they came to no harm. He
just managed to save the Lord Chancellor from the lantern jaws of the
royal cat, and then proceeded at once to set his small family in safe
places for the night. Some he put in the crystal lily-cups of the
chandeliers; others in the crannies of the golden mouldings on the wall;
while for the King and Queen and the twelve little Princesses, he found
a lovely chamber in a pink porcelain shell which hung from the ceiling
by silver chains, and was commonly used for the burning of perfumes and
spices to make the air of the dining-hall sweet and delightful. All this
being attended to, the Prince betook himself to bed; but the palace
seemed very lonely and silent, and the Prince was so dull and so
frightened that he might not have gone to sleep at all, save for the
cheering though