how happy the Queen was! She
opened the lid, and the snuff-box said to her 'What do you want?' And
she answered at once 'I want you to take me and my husband and my
servants and this beautiful house and set us down on the other side of
the Red Sea, but my daughter and her husband are to stay behind.'

[Illustration]

When the young couple woke up, they found themselves back in the old
castle, without their snuff-box. They hunted for it high and low, but
quite vainly. The young man felt that no time was to be lost, and he
mounted his horse and filled his pockets with as much gold as he could
carry. On he went, away, away, away, but he sought the snuff-box in vain
all up and down the neighbouring countries, and very soon he came to the
end of all his money. But still he went on, as fast as the strength of
his horse would let him, begging his way.

Someone told him that he ought to consult the moon, for the moon
travelled far, and might be able to tell him something. So he went away,
away, away, and ended, somehow or other, by reaching the land of the
moon. There he found a little old woman who said to him 'What are you
doing here? My son eats all living things he sees, and if you are wise,
you will go away without coming any further.' But the young man told her
all his sad tale, and how he possessed a wonderful snuff-box, and how it
had been stolen from him, and how he had nothing left, now that he was
parted from his wife and was in need of everything. And he said that
perhaps her son, who travelled so far, might have seen a palace with
laths of gold and tiles of diamond, and furnished all in silver and
gold. As he spoke these last words, the moon came in and said he smelt
mortal flesh and blood. But his mother told him that it was an unhappy
man who had lost everything, and had come all this way to consult him,
and bade the young man not to be afraid, but to come forward and show
himself. So he went boldly up to the moon, and asked if by any accident
he had seen a palace with the laths of gold and the tiles of diamond,
and all the furniture of silver and gold. Once this house belonged to
him, but now it was stolen. And the moon said no, but that the sun
travelled farther than he did, and that the young man had better go and
ask him.

So the young man departed, and went away, away, away, as well as his
horse would take him, begging his living as he rode along, and, somehow
or other, at last he got to the land of the