leave the palace, she managed to creep unseen behind
his chair, and climbed up into his pocket. Shortly afterwards the
serving man rose up to go, and left the palace.

Then the pigmy princess, whilst snugly ensconced in the man's pocket as
he walked along the street, began to reflect what should be her next
step.

"Within the palace," she said to herself, "all is scheming and envy. I
am easily put out of the way when they once get me. I must escape far
from the palace and put myself under the protection of the people. At
any rate, I'll first have a peep at the world without."

So, thrusting her little head out of the man's pocket, she looked to the
right and the left, and found herself in the middle of a large square.
There was a great crowd of people, who were looking at a puppet show.
The serving man whose pocket she was in also stood still to look. She,
too, seized with curiosity, strained her head out of the pocket to take
a peep at the puppets.

A play was being acted in which two puppet knights were fighting for the
love of a fair lady. A sudden thought struck her. She would join the
puppets and mix in the play; it would be a way of showing herself to the
public. So she stole out of the serving man's pocket, and taking
advantage of the people's absorbing interest in the play, crept
stealthily over their feet, till she came to a box full of puppets on
the ground. The uppermost puppet in the box was a lady, gaily attired,
probably the very lady for whom the puppet knights were fighting, so she
laid herself over the body of the doll, so as to be taken by the man
when he wanted her, instead of the usual puppet.

The very next moment the showman, who now had to bring the lady on the
scene, reached down his hand without looking, and seizing the princess
in lieu of the wooden doll, brought her upon the stage.

"Cease your broils," shouted the pigmy princess in her tiny voice. "Is
it thus that noble knights waste their precious blood for the love of a
woman? Is not the love of a woman at her own disposal--to be granted to
the man she pleases? Will she necessarily love the victor, or will he
have the arrogance to think that he can conquer her heart as he could
conquer a foe? Cease, madmen, and spare your blood to grace the
battlefield, or to defend the rights of woman. Ye are not too plentiful,
my noble knights. The realm has much need of ye.

"Wrongs enough ye have to redress. What say ye to the grievous wrong
th