136 PRINCE RICARDO.

ficent bow, led the way upstairs to a little
turret-room, in a deserted part of the palace.
Bidding the tradesmen enter, he showed them
a large collection of miscellaneous things: an
old cap or two, a pair of boots of a sort long
out of fashion, an old broadsword, a shabby
old Persian rug, an ivory spyglass, and other
articles. These were, in fact, the fairy
presents, which had been given to the
king at his christening, and by aid of
which (and his natural acuteness) he had,
in his youth, succeeded in many remarkable
adventures.

The caps were the Wishing Cap and the Cap
of Darkness. The rug was the famous carpet
which carried its owner through the air where-
ever he wished to go. The sword was the
Sword of Sharpness. The ivory glass showed
you anyone you wanted to see, however far off.
The boots were the Seven-league Boots, which
Hop-o’-my-Thumb stole from the Ogre about
1697. There were other valuable objects, but
these were the most useful and celebrated. Of
course the king did not tell the tradesmen what
they were.

““Now, gentlemen,” said his Majesty, ‘you
see these old things. For reasons which I
must ask you to excuse me for keeping to
myself, I wish you to provide me with objects
exactly and precisely similar to these, with all
the look of age.”