.I40 PRINCE RICARDO.

 

his Wishing Cap, and understood all about the
affair. The hatter, in his absence, had tried on
the Wishing Cap, and had wished that he him-
self and his friends were all at home and back
again with their wares at the palace. And what
he wished happened, of course, as was natural.

In a moment the king saw how much talk
this business would produce in the country, and
he decided on the best way to stop it.

Seizing the Wishing Cap, he put it on, wished
all the tradesmen, including the shoemaker,
back in the town at their shops, and also
wished that none of them should remember
anything about the whole affair.

In a moment he was alone in the turret-room.
As for the shopkeepers, they had a kind of idea
that they had dreamed something odd; but, as
it went no further, of course they did not talk
about it, and nobody was any the wiser.

“Owl that I am!” said King Prigio to him-
self. ‘I might have better wished for a
complete set of sham fairy things which would
not work. It would have saved a great deal
of trouble; but Iam so much out of the habit
of using the cap, that I never thought of it.
However, what I have got will do very well.”

Then, putting on the Cap of Darkness, that
nobody might see him, he carried all the real
fairy articles away, except the Seven-league
Boots, to his own room, where he locked them
up, leaving in their place the sham Wishing