I.] THE LOST PRINCE. 25

 

previously observed the speaker. ‘Guns and dogs!’
she cried, ‘how you did startle me! I would willingly
tell you all I know, for you look so kind that I am
quite grieved that you should be in sorrow. But you
must know that I really can say no more about it, for
in this forest we leave all such matters entirely to the
squirrels, You had better ask them, I should think.
Well done, Rindelgrover!’ and having thus spoken,
the hare quietly returned to her occupation of grass-
nibbling, and took no further notice of the Princesses.

The latter now began to think that the squirrels
were evidently the people to be sought, and they
therefore determined to wander along the banks of
the stream in hopes of encountering some of these
little animals. Nor had they far to go before their
object was accomplished. Not many yards from the
spot where they had been seated, they perceived two
squirrels chasing each other round and round a tree,
climbing over its branches, jumping from place to
place, and having a regular good game of hunt-the-
squirrel, or hide and seek, or by whatever name the
squirrels call it when they are at home. The Princesses
approached as near as they thought they might ven-
ture to do without giving offence to the graceful little
animals, and then Malvina addressed them in the
following words:

‘Kind squirrels, would you be so very good as to
inform us where our dear brother, Prince Merry, is;
and what we are to do in order to get him back
again?’

As she spoke, the squirrels approached near to
each other, and sat sedately, about a foot apart, on a