even poked aside the grasses, but
they could not find the Princess on the road to the park.

Then a regular force of detectives was organized, and the search
continued day after day. Every house in the country was examined in
every nook and corner. The cupboards even were all ransacked, and the
bureau drawers. The King had a favorite book of philosophy, and one
motto which he had learned in his youth recurred to him. It was this:

"When a-seeking, seek in the unlikely places, as well as the likely;
for no man can tell the road that lost things may prefer."

So he ordered search to be made in unlikely as well as likely places,
for the Princess; and it was carried so far that the people had all
to turn their pockets inside out, and shake their shawls and
table-cloths. But it was all of no use. Six months went by, and
the Princess Rosetta had not been found. The King and Queen were
broken-hearted. The Queen wept all day long, and her tears fell into
her honey, until it was no longer sweet, and she could not eat it. The
King sat by himself and had no heart for anything.

[Illustration: THE BEE GUARDS PATROLLED THE CITY.]

But the four nurses were in nearly as much distress. Not only had they
been very fond of the little Princess, and were grieving bitterly for
her loss, but they had also a punishment to endure. They had been
released from custody, because there was really no evidence against
them, but in view of their possible carelessness, and in perpetual
reminder of the loss of the Princess, a sentence had been passed upon
them. They had been condemned to wear their bonnets the wrong way
around, indoors and out, until the Princess should be found. So the
poor nurses wept into the crowns of their bonnets. They had little
peep-holes in the straw that they might see to get about, and they
lifted up the capes in order to eat; but it was very trying. The
nurses were all pretty young women too, and the Head-nurse who came of
quite a distinguished family was to have been married soon. But how
could she be a bride and wear a veil with her face in the crown of her
bonnet?

The Head-nurse was quite clever, and she thought about the Princess's
disappearance, until finally her thoughts took shape. One day she put
on her shawl--her bonnet was always on--and set out to call on the
Baron Greenleaf. The Baron was an old man who was said to be versed
in white magic, and lived in a stone tower with his servants and his
house-keeper