w anything?
Has nobody any sense?"

"Of course not!" said the peasants. "Who cares about knowing anything,
and what's the good of having sense? We have a good time in the world,
and that's enough for us."

The Prince would have reproved the peasants for talking so foolishly,
but that the words seemed to have a strangely familiar sound; and he
suddenly remembered that he had used them himself at one time when his
tutor was urging him to learn common fractions.

In the mean time the peasants, always eager for any new thing, had
become very anxious to know what was in the mysterious box which the
Prince carried.

"If it is a show," they cried, "open the box and set it out. We are
weary for something new to laugh at."

But the Prince hardly thought it would please the King and Queen to be
laughed at by a crowd of gaping rustics. To be sure, he had shown them
before, but that was in private and not as a real exhibition at a public
fair. Some days ago this would not have troubled the Prince at all; but
trial and hardship were fast making Vance into a very different sort of
boy from the Prince who was the despair of his poor tutor and the
torment of the entire palace.

However, the poor wayfarer reflected that as food was only to be had for
money, money must be earned in some way, or the Court and himself were
certain to starve. It also occurred to him that if his family still had
any feelings they must be such exceedingly small ones that they were not
of much importance; and accordingly he opened his box and proceeded to
show off his tiny relatives, the peasants screaming with laughter at the
airs and graces of the little Courtiers, and offering them all manner of
cakes, fruits, and bonbons for the sake of seeing them eat. The Court
Priest pleased the rustics particularly, as he seized the only sugared
almond and ran away with it into a corner, pursued by the entire Court,
all squabbling and quarrelling in the most undignified manner possible.
This sight so delighted the peasants that they gave Vance plenty of good
silver bits, and thus he was able at last to buy himself a breakfast,
though you may be quite sure he did not get it of the old woman who had
made sport of him before.

When he had finished his meal, which was eaten sitting on the grass
before a chicken-pasty booth, he rose and asked the peasants politely
the way to the Funny Man's house.

"The house is far away," they cried, "but the Funny Man is here at