exchequer was almost empty, for the evil men had squandered
everything, and the king hated taxes unwillingly paid. Then came
Curdie and said to the king that the city stood upon gold. And the
king sent for men wise in the ways of the earth, and they built
smelting furnaces, and Peter brought miners, and they mined the gold,
and smelted it, and the king coined it into money, and therewith
established things well in the land.

The same day on which he found his boy, Peter set out to go home. When
he told the good news to Joan, his wife, she rose from her chair and
said, 'Let us go.' And they left the cottage, and repaired to
Gwyntystorm. And on a mountain above the city they built themselves a
warm house for their old age, high in the clear air.

As Peter mined one day, at the back of the king's wine Cellar, he broke
into a cavern crusted with gems, and much wealth flowed therefrom, and
the king used it wisely.

Queen Irene--that was the right name of the old princess--was
thereafter seldom long absent from the palace. Once or twice when she
was missing, Barbara, who seemed to know of her sometimes when nobody
else had a notion whither she had gone, said she was with the dear old
Uglies in the wood. Curdie thought that perhaps her business might be
with others there as well. All the uppermost rooms in the palace were
left to her use, and when any one was in need of her help, up thither
he must go. But even when she was there, he did not always succeed in
finding her. She, however, always knew that such a one had been
looking for her.

Curdie went to find her one day. As he ascended the last stair, to
meet him came the well-known scent of her roses; and when he opened the
door, lo! there was the same gorgeous room in which his touch had been
glorified by her fire! And there burned the fire--a huge heap of red
and white roses. Before the hearth stood the princess, an old
grey-haired woman, with Lina a little behind her, slowly wagging her
tail, and looking like a beast of prey that can hardly so long restrain
itself from springing as to be sure of its victim. The queen was
casting roses, more and more roses, upon the fire. At last she turned
and said, 'Now Lina!'--and Lina dashed burrowing into the fire. There
went up a black smoke and a dust, and Lina was never more seen in the
palace.

Irene and Curdie were married. The old king died, and they were king
and queen. As long as they lived Gwyntystorm wa