rriage
drawn by six white horses was brought, and the little prince and his
servants rode away to the old woman's house, and when they got there
the first thing they spied was the little green plant in a jar
standing in the old woman's window.

The old woman, herself, came to the door, and she was glad to see the
little prince. She invited him in, and bade him warm his hands by the
fire, and gave him a cooky from her cupboard to eat.

She had a little grandson no older than the prince, but he was sick
and could not run about and play like other children. He lay in a
little white bed in the old woman's room, and the little prince, after
he had eaten the cooky, spoke to him, and took out his favorite
plaything, which he always carried in his pocket, and showed it to
him.

The prince's favorite plaything was a ball which was like no other
ball that had ever been made. It was woven of magic stuff as bright as
the sunlight, as sparkling as the starlight, and as golden as the moon
at harvest time. And when the little prince threw it into the air, or
bounced it on the floor or turned it in his hands it rang like a chime
of silver bells.

The sick child laughed to hear it, and held out his hands for it, and
the prince let him hold it, which pleased the grandmother as much as
the child.

But pleased though she was she would not sell the rosemary. She had
brought it from the home where she had lived when her little
grandson's father was a boy, she said, and she hoped to keep it till
she died. So the prince and his servants had to go home without it.

No sooner had they gone than the sick child began to talk of the
wonderfull ball.

"If I had such a ball to hold in my hand," he said, "I should be
contented all the day."

"You may as well wish for the moon in the sky," said his grandmother;
but she thought of what he said, and in the evening when he was asleep
she put her shawl around her, and taking the jar of rosemary with her
she hastened to the king's palace.

When she got there the servants asked her errand but she would answer
nothing till they had taken her to the little prince.

"Silver and gold would not buy the rosemary," she said when she saw
him; "but if you will give me your golden ball for my little
grandchild you may have the plant."

"But my ball is the most wonderful ball that was ever made!" cried the
little prince; "and it is my favorite plaything. I would not give it
away for anything."

And so