TWILIGHT LAND

“T love you as a mountain of silver,” said the second
prince, and the king was pleased with that also.

_ But when the youngest prince was called, he did not
answer at first, but thought and thought. At last he
looked up. ‘‘I love you,” said he, ‘‘as I love salt.”

When the king heard what his youngest son said he
was filled with anger. ‘ What!” he cried, ‘‘do you love
me no better than salt—a stuff that is the most bitter of
all things to the taste, and the cheapest and the com-
monest of all things in the world? Away with you, and
never let me see your face again! Henceforth you are
no son of mine.”

The prince would have spoken, but the king would not
allow him, and bade his guards thrust the young man
forth from the room.

Now the queen loved the youngest prince the best of
all her sons, and when she heard how the king was about
-to drive him forth into the wide world to shift for himself,
she wept and wept. “Ah, my son!” said she to him, “it
is little or nothing that I have to give you. Nevertheless,
I have one precious thing. Here is a ring; take it and
wear it always, for so long as you have it upon your
finger no magic can have power over you.”

Thus it was that the youngest prince set forth into the
wide world with little or nothing but a ring upon his
finger.

For seven days he travelled on, and knew not where he
was going or whither his footsteps led. At the end of
that time he came to the gates of a town. The prince
entered the gates, and found himself in a city the like of
which he had never seen in his life before for grandeur
and magnificence—beautiful palaces and gardens, stores

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