TWILIGHT LAND

you strange things to-night. I will unfold all the wonder
to you another time, Will you not come back and sup
with me again?”

“Yes,” said the prince, ‘I will come whensoever you
bid me;” for he was curious to know the secret of the
statue and the strange things he had seen.

“And will you not give me a pledge of your coming ?”
said the queen, still smiling.

“What pledge shall I give you?” said the prince.

“ Give me the ring that is upon your finger,” said the
queen; and she smiled so bewitchingly that the prince
could not have refused her had he desired to do so.

Alas for him! He thought no evil, but, without a word,
drew off the ring and gave it to the queen, and she slipped
it upon her finger.

“© fool!” she cried, laughing a wicked laugh, ‘ O fool !
to give away that in which your safety lay!” As she
spoke she dipped her fingers into a basin of water that
stood near by and dashed the drops into the prince’s face.
“ Be a raven,” she cried, ‘and a raven remain!”

In an instant the prince was a prince no longer, but a
coal-black raven. The queen snatched up a sword that
lay near by and struck at him to kill him. But the raven-
prince leaped aside and the blow missed its aim.

By good luck a window stood open, and before the queen
could strike again he spread his wings and flew out of the
open casement and over the house-tops, and was gone.

On he flew and on he flew until he came to the old
man’s house, and so to the room where his foster-father
himself was sitting. He lit upon the ground at the old
man’s feet and tried to tell him what had befallen, but all
that he could say was “Croak! croak!”

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