WASSA CAPTURES THE FAIRY PRINCE. 209

 

I have thee now,
No more thou’lt roam,
But seek at once
Thy fairy home.”

The instant the fairy flower was shaken o’er
him, the fairy prince stood as if spellbound,
and Wassa easily picked him up and set off for
home.

Through other long and dreary passages
Wassa carried her charge, who from time to
time struggled to free himself from her tight
grasp, but every time she shook the fairy flower
over him he ceased to struggle, and they pro-
ceeded for a while quietly on their way.

Wassa’s long journey, however, had _ told
heavily upon her, and the prince’s struggles
to free himself as often as the fairy flower lost
its influence, tired and irritated her. Many a
time she was on the point of abandoning her
project of reaching King Rondo’s domains,
but as often as she gave way to this impulse
came the thought of the dreadful fate that
would be hers if she should have to stay in
these underground caverns, —for no sound,
either of man or beast, reached her,—and so
she continued her dreary way until a huge rock