own a grassy road leading to a wood. For some
time he cantered easily along, expecting any moment to hear the shouts
and halloos of his friends following after; but they by mistake took
quite another road, and no sound except the pounding of his courser's
hoofs reached the Prince's ear. Suddenly an ugly snarl and a short bark
broke the stillness of the pleasant forest, and looking down, the Prince
saw a gray wolf snapping at his horse's heels.

Though the horse, wild with fear, threatened to run away any instant,
the Prince leaned over and struck the wolf with his whip.

Hardly had he done so, when an angry voice cried, "How dare you strike
my pet?"

A little distance ahead, a wicked old witch stood at one side of the
road. With its tail between its legs, the wolf cowered close to her
skirts, and showed its long yellow fangs.

"Pet, indeed!" cried the Prince. "Keep him away from my horse or I will
strike him again."

"At your peril, Prince," answered the witch. And then, as the Prince
turned his horse's head and galloped back, she called out, "You shall
rue this day! You shall rue this day!"

Now by the time the Prince had arrived at the ploughed field and the
great road again, his friends had galloped on so far that they were lost
to sight. Thinking that he might overtake them by following a shorter
road, he turned down a byway skirting the wood in which he had
encountered the enchantress. Presently he began to feel very thirsty.
Chancing to see an old peasant woman in the fields, the Prince called to
her and asked where he could find a roadside spring.

Now this old peasant woman was the wicked witch under another form.
Overjoyed at having the Prince fall so easily into her power, she
curtsied; and replied that within the wood was to be found the finest
spring in the country. Anxious not to lose time, the Prince begged her
to lead him to the water. Little did he know that the witch was leading
him back into the wood, and that she had just bewitched the water!

When they arrived at the pool, the Prince dismounted, and kneeling by
the brim, made a cup of his hands and drank till his thirst was
satisfied. He was just about to seize his horse again by the bridle and
put his foot into the stirrup, when a terrible pang shot through his
body, darkness swam before his eyes, his arms lengthened and became
branches, his fingers, twigs; his feet shot into the ground, and he
found himself turned into a giant elm.

A gi