enter of the room was a fountain of sparkling water which leaped
up and fell back into its marble basin with a kind of rhythmical sound
that made a faint, dreamy music very pleasant to listen to.

On a table near at hand were various baskets of the most tempting pears
and grapes and peaches, and near them were dishes of all kinds of
sweetmeats. "Good," said the greedy young prince, "that is what I like
best of all," and therewith he fell to eating the fruit and sweetmeats
as fast as he could cram them into his mouth. He ate so much he had a
pain in his stomach, but strange to say, the table was just as full as
when he began, for no sooner did he reach his hand out and take a soft
mellow pear or a rich, juicy peach than another pear or peach took its
place in the basket. The same thing occurred when he helped himself to
chocolate drops or marsh-mallows or any of the other confectionery upon
the table. For, of course, if the little palace was enchanted,
everything in it was enchanted, also.

When Prince Harweda had eaten until he could eat no more he threw
himself down upon one of the couches and an invisible hand gently
stroked his hair until he fell asleep. When he awoke he noticed for the
first time the walls which, by the way, were really the strangest part
of his new home. They had in them twelve long, checkered windows which
reached from the ceiling to the floor. The spaces between the windows
were filled in with mirrors exactly the same size as the windows, so
that the whole room was walled in with windows and looking glasses.
Through the three windows that looked to the north could be seen the far
distant mountains Beautiful, as they were called, towering high above
the surrounding country; sometimes their snow-covered tops were pink or
creamy yellow as they caught the rays of the sunrise; sometimes they
were dark purple or blue as they reflected the storm cloud. From the
three windows that faced the south could be seen the great ocean,
tossing and moving, constantly catching a thousand gleams of silver from
the moonlight. Again and again, each little wave would be capped with
white from its romp with the wind. Yet, as the huge mountains seemed to
reach higher than man could climb, so the vast ocean seemed to stretch
out farther than any ship could possibly carry him. The eastern windows
gave each morning a glorious vision of sky as the darkness of the night
slowly melted into the still gray dawn, and that changed