. He is about three years old, and of course,
running about, is always breaking his bangles and his mother buys him
new ones every day." "Do you know what the child's name is?" said the
Rajah. "Yes," answered the bangle-seller carelessly, "for the lady
always calls him her Muchie Lal." "Ah," thought the Muchie
Rajah, "this must be my wife." Then he said to him again, "Good
bangle-seller, I would see these strange people of whom you speak;
cannot you take me there?" "Not to-night," replied the bangle-seller;
"daylight has gone, and we should only frighten them; but I shall be
going there again to-morrow, and then you may come too. Meanwhile,
come and rest at my house for the night, for you look faint and
weary." The Rajah consented. Next morning, however, very early, he
woke the bangle-seller, saying, "Pray let us go now and see the people
you spoke about yesterday." "Stay," said the bangle-seller; "it is
much too early. I never go till after breakfast." So the Rajah had to
wait till the bangle-seller was ready to go. At last they started off,
and when they reached the Cobra's hole the first thing the Rajah saw
was a fine little boy playing with the young Cobras.

As the bangle-seller came along, jingling his bangles, a gentle voice
from inside the hole called out, "Come here, my Muchie Lal, and try
on your bangles." Then the Muchie Rajah, kneeling down at the mouth
of the hole, said, "Oh, lady, show your beautiful face to me." At the
sound of his voice the Ranee ran out, crying, "Husband, husband! have
you found me again?" And she told him how her sister had tried to
drown her, and how the good Cobra had saved her life and taken care of
her and her child. Then he said, "And will you now come home with me?"
And she told him how the Cobra would never let her go, and said, "I
will first tell him of your coming; for he has been a father to me."
So she called out, "Father Cobra, father Cobra, my husband has come
to fetch me; will you let me go?" "Yes," he said, "if your husband
has come to fetch you, you may go." And his wife said, "Farewell, dear
lady, we are loath to lose you, for we have loved you as a daughter."
And all the little Cobras were very sorrowful to think that they
must lose their playfellow, the young Prince. Then the Cobra gave the
Muchie Rajah and the Muchie Ranee and Muchie Lal all the most costly
gifts he could find in his treasure-house; and so they went home,
where they lived very happy ever after.