'I am running away from the mermaid,' replied the boy; but the bee,
like the lion and the bear, was one of those people who never listen
to the answers to their questions, and only said: 'I am hungry. Give
me something to eat.'

The boy took his last loaf and flask out of his knapsack and laid them
on the ground, and they had supper together. 'Well, now I am going to
sleep,' observed the bee when the last crumb was gone, 'but as you are
not very big I can make room for you beside me,' and he curled up his
wings, and tucked in his legs, and he and the prince both slept
soundly till morning. Then the bee got up and carefully brushed every
scrap of dust off his velvet coat and buzzed loudly in the boy's ear
to waken him.

'Take a single hair from one of my wings,' said he, 'and if you are in
danger just wish yourself a bee and you will become one. One good turn
deserves another, so farewell, and thank you for your supper.' And the
bee departed after the boy had pulled out the hair and wrapped it
carefully in a leaf.

'It must feel quite different to be a bee from what it does to be a
lion or bear,' thought the boy to himself when he had walked for an
hour or two. 'I dare say I should get on a great deal faster,' so he
pulled out his hair and wished himself a bee.

In a moment the strangest thing happened to him. All his limbs seemed
to draw together, and his body to become very short and round; his
head grew quite tiny, and instead of his white skin he was covered
with the richest, softest velvet. Better than all, he had two lovely
gauze wings which carried him the whole day without getting tired.

Late in the afternoon the boy fancied he saw a vast heap of stones a
long way off, and he flew straight towards it. But when he reached the
gates he saw that it was really a great town, so he wished himself
back in his own shape and entered the city.

He found the palace doors wide open and went boldly into a sort of
hall which was full of people, and where men and maids were gossiping
together. He joined their talk and soon learned from them that the
king had only one daughter who had such a hatred to men that she would
never suffer one to enter her presence. Her father was in despair, and
had had pictures painted of the handsomest princes of all the courts
in the world, in the hope that she might fall in love with one of
them; but it was no use; the princess would not even allow the
pictures to be brought into her ro