sh water of which the
meal consisted. When he had finished the meal,--which, as you may
suppose, did not take long,--he set his box upon the table and opened
it.

[Illustration]

"First," he said, "let us give them some food, and you shall see how
prettily they can play at eating and drinking."

But if the food was coarse eating to Vance, you may well imagine that it
was quite beyond the power of the tiny teeth of the little people, who
were not able to eat a morsel. This made them wring their hands and weep
upon their tiny pocket-handkerchiefs; and the King even boxed the Lord
Chancellor's ears, so angry was he at being disappointed of his supper.

All this was vastly amusing to the fisherman and his wife, who thought
the whole thing was done as a show, and would not hear of Vance's
closing his box until the darkness quite hid the supposed puppets from
sight.

In the night, as Vance lay trying in vain to sleep upon the hard clay
floor of the cottage, he overheard the fisherman and his wife whispering
together.

"I tell ye, wife," the old man was saying, "I will do it, so there be's
an end to the matter. I tell ye I will have the show for my very own. I
could make more money with the puppets in one day at the fair, than I
make by a year's fishing hereabouts."

"But the boy," asked the old woman, eagerly,--"ye won't hurt the boy,
will ye, good man?"

"Hurt him? No," returned the fisherman, "I won't do him no harm. I'll
sell him for a sailor to the ship that lies in the offing, and then I'll
take his show and travel about the country with it, making money."

As Vance heard this, you may be sure he shivered with horror at the idea
that his family was to be stolen and he himself sold to go as a sailor.
He lay very still, however, till the loud snoring told him that the
fisherman and his wife were both asleep, when he rose softly, and
finding his precious box shouldered his burden, crept quietly from the
cottage, and made all the speed he could in the darkness to leave the
wicked fisherman and his hut far, far behind.

At daybreak he met a man just pushing his boat from the shore, and from
him he asked whither the road along the beach would lead him.

"That's a thing as nobody can't tell ye," said the man, fitting the oars
into his boat, "because nobody don't rightly know. Howsoever, I advise
ye to take it, for it's full as likely to lead somewheres as nowheres."

This advice was of no great value to the Princ