h," began the Prince, "told me to
ask you how I should find the Crushed Strawberry Wizard."

"Pooh!" cried the Funny Man, turning rapidly on the ends of his pointed
toes. "I don't care about doing that. Why should I? There's no fun in
it. Stop a minute, though! Is that _all_ the jelly-fish said? You are
sure he said nothing more, not a word?"

"Nothing that meant anything," replied the Prince. "He said 'Flubaloo'
as he left me."

"No!" exclaimed the Funny Man, turning rather pale. "Did he really,
though? If he did, that puts matters in a very different light, a very
serious light. Come home with me, and in the morning I'll set you off on
the right road. Hurry! for we have a good distance to go, and 'tis a
roundabout way."

Following the lead of the Funny Man, the Prince found himself once more
upon the high-road, along which they journeyed until late in the
afternoon, when their path suddenly plunged deep into the forest.

"Wait a minute!" said the Funny Man; "I must light my nose."

"Do what?" asked the astonished Prince.

"Light my nose, Stupid!" replied his guide.

The Prince said no more, but looked on in silent amazement while the
Funny Man untwisted the figure eight at the point of his nose, and
removed a small copper cap which covered the end. He then struck a match
and applied it to the bottom of this macaroni-like tube. A light like a
large star at once appeared, and shed its yellow beams about so widely
as to make the gloomy forest-road as light as day.

"Excuse me for speaking of it," said the Prince, politely, "but that's a
strange sort of nose you have."

"Not at all," answered the Funny Man, carelessly; "very common in these
parts,--very common, indeed. Simply a sort of slow-match; grows in the
daytime as much as it burns away at night. Come on! I'm going to run,
and you must catch me. Hurrah! Now you see me and now you don't!"

[Illustration]

Alas for the poor Prince! it was mostly "don't." The light flickered and
danced ahead of him like a will-o'-the-wisp, and was often lost
entirely; while the tired boy, burdened with his cumbersome box,
hastened after as best he might, stumbling and tumbling over stones and
tough roots, splashing through miry places and running violently against
tree-trunks, till just as he was ready to sink down in despair and let
his unpleasant companion go where he would, he came suddenly upon the
Funny Man resting upon the gate of a curious little house, and laughin