e out with the princess one
moment after the sun was down; and they were nearly a mile up the
mountain! If His Majesty, Irene's papa, were to hear of it, Lootie
would certainly be dismissed; and to leave the princess would break her
heart. It was no wonder she ran. But Irene was not in the least
frightened, not knowing anything to be frightened at. She kept on
chattering as well as she could, but it was not easy.

'Lootie! Lootie! why do you run so fast? It shakes my teeth when I
talk.'

'Then don't talk,' said Lootie.

'But the princess went on talking. She was always saying: 'Look, look,
Lootie!' but Lootie paid no more heed to anything she said, only ran on.

'Look, look, Lootie! Don't you see that funny man peeping over the
rock?'

Lootie only ran the faster. They had to pass the rock, and when they
came nearer, the princess saw it was only a lump of the rock itself
that she had taken for a man.

'Look, look, Lootie! There's such a curious creature at the foot of
that old tree. Look at it, Lootie! It's making faces at us, I do
think.'

Lootie gave a stifled cry, and ran faster still--so fast that Irene's
little legs could not keep up with her, and she fell with a crash. It
was a hard downhill road, and she had been running very fast--so it was
no wonder she began to cry. This put the nurse nearly beside herself;
but all she could do was to run on, the moment she got the princess on
her feet again.

'Who's that laughing at me?' said the princess, trying to keep in her
sobs, and running too fast for her grazed knees.

'Nobody, child,' said the nurse, almost angrily.

But that instant there came a burst of coarse tittering from somewhere
near, and a hoarse indistinct voice that seemed to say: 'Lies! lies!
lies!'

'Oh!' cried the nurse with a sigh that was almost a scream, and ran on
faster than ever.

'Nursie! Lootie! I can't run any more. Do let us walk a bit.'

'What am I to do?' said the nurse. 'Here, I will carry you.'

She caught her up; but found her much too heavy to run with, and had to
set her down again. Then she looked wildly about her, gave a great
cry, and said:

'We've taken the wrong turning somewhere, and I don't know where we
are. We are lost, lost!'

The terror she was in had quite bewildered her. It was true enough
they had lost the way. They had been running down into a little valley
in which there was no house to be seen.

Now Irene did not know what good