he not discovered, just at dusk, a cavern,
where there sat, beside a bright lantern, a little woman who might
have been more than a hundred years old.

She put on her spectacles the better to look at the stranger, and he
noticed that her nose was so small that the spectacles would hardly
stay on; then the prince and the fairy,--for it was a fairy--burst
into a mutual fit of laughter.

"What a funny nose?" cried the one.

"Not so funny as yours, madam," returned the other. "But pray let us
leave our noses alone, and be good enough to give me something to
eat, for I am dying with hunger, and so is my poor horse."

"With all my heart," answered the fairy. "Although your nose is
ridiculously long, you are no less the son of one of my best friends.
I loved your father like a brother; _he_ had a very handsome nose."

"What is wanting to my nose?" asked Wish, rather savagely.

"Oh! nothing at all. On the contrary there is a great deal too much of
it; but never mind, one may be a very honest man, and yet have too big
a nose. As I said, I was a great friend of your father's; he came
often to see me. I was very pretty then, and oftentimes he used to say
to me, 'My sister--'"

"I will hear the rest, madam, with pleasure, when I have supped; but
will you condescend to remember that I have tasted nothing all day?"

"Poor boy," said the fairy, "I will give you some supper directly; and
while you eat it I will tell you my history in six words, for I hate
much talking. A long tongue is as insupportable as a long nose; and I
remember when I was young how much I used to be admired because I was
not a talker; indeed, some one said to the queen, my mother,--for poor
as you see me now I am the daughter of a great king, who always--"

"Ate when he was hungry, I hope," interrupted the Prince, whose
patience was fast departing.

"You are right," said the imperturbable old fairy; "and I will bring
you your supper directly, only I wish first just to say that the king
my father--"

"Hang the king your father!" Prince Wish was about to exclaim, but he
stopped himself, and only observed that however the pleasure of her
conversation might make him forget his hunger, it could not have the
same effect upon his horse, who was really starving.

The fairy, pleased at his civility, called her servants and bade them
supply him at once with all he needed. "And," added she, "I must say
you are very polite and very good-tempered, in spite of you