y ones?"

Then the Prince suddenly recovered his memory, and cried:

"What can have made me forget such an important thing? My whole fortune
depends upon it; and even if I could in such a short time find a dog
pretty enough to gain me a kingdom, where should I find a horse who
would carry me all that way in three days?" And he began to be very
vexed. But the White Cat said to him: "King's son, do not trouble
yourself; I am your friend, and will make everything easy for you. You
can still stay here for a day, as the good wooden horse can take you to
your country in twelve hours."

"I thank you, beautiful Cat," said the Prince; "but what good will it do
me to get back if I have not a dog to take to my father?"

"See here," answered the White Cat, holding up an acorn; "there is a
prettier one in this than in the Dogstar!"

"Oh! White Cat dear," said the Prince, "how unkind you are to laugh at
me now!"

"Only listen," she said, holding the acorn to his ear.

And inside it he distinctly heard a tiny voice say: "Bow-wow!"

The Prince was delighted, for a dog that can be shut up in an acorn must
be very small indeed. He wanted to take it out and look at it, but the
White Cat said it would be better not to open the acorn till he was
before the King, in case the tiny dog should be cold on the journey. He
thanked her a thousand times, and said good-by quite sadly when the time
came for him to set out.

"The days have passed so quickly with you," he said, "I only wish I
could take you with me now."

But the White Cat shook her head and sighed deeply in answer.

After all the Prince was the first to arrive at the castle where he had
agreed to meet his brothers, but they came soon after, and stared in
amazement when they saw the wooden horse in the courtyard jumping like a
hunter.

The Prince met them joyfully, and they began to tell him all their
adventures; but he managed to hide from them what he had been doing, and
even led them to think that a turnspit dog which he had with him was the
one he was bringing for the King. Fond as they all were of one another,
the two eldest could not help being glad to think that their dogs
certainly had a better chance. The next morning they started in the same
chariot. The elder brothers carried in baskets two such tiny, fragile
dogs that they hardly dared to touch them. As for the turnspit, he ran
after the chariot, and got so covered with mud that one could hardly see
what he wa