TWILIGHT LAND

and so they did, from the king himself to the beggar-man
at the gates. As for the prime-minister, the Genie himself
trimmed two locks of hair from him, one from over each
of his ears, so that the next morning he looked as shorn
as an old sheep. In the morning all the town was in a
hubbub, and everybody was wondering how all the men
came to have their hair clipped as it was. But the
princess had brought the lock of Jacob Stuck’s hair away
with her wrapped up in a piece of paper, and there it
was,

As for the ring Jacob Stuck had given to her, why, the
next morning there were three of them, and the king
thought he had never heard tell of such a wonderful
thing.

“T tell you,” said the prime-minister, “there is nothing
in it but a piece of good luck, and not a grain of virtue.
It’s just a piece of good luck—that’s all it is.”

‘No matter,” said the king; “I never saw the like of
it in all my life before. And now, what are we going
to do?”

The prime-minister could think of nothing.

Then the princess spoke up. “Your majesty,” she
said, “I can find the young man for you. Just let the
herald go through the town and proclaim that I will marry
the young man to whom this lock of hair belongs, and
then we will find him quickly enough.”

“What!” cried the prime-minister ; “will, then, the
princess marry a man who has nothing better than a little
bit of good luck to help him along in the world?”

“Yes,” said the princess, “I shall if: I can find
him,”

So the herald was sent out around the town proclaiming
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