NE day Number Nip hid himself among some bushes, that he might see the people who passed, and know how they behaved. There was a dashing waterfall near the place where Number Nip lay hid, and there was a clear crystal pool below it, all shaded about with widebranching trees. A very beautiful lady came with her maidens to this pool soon after Number Nip had gone into his hiding-place. She was a Princess, the daughter of the King of Silesia, whose palace Number Nip had seen from the top of the hill. She often came out to the woods to gather sweet-smelling flowers and wild strawberries for her

father, the King, who was very fond of sweetsmelling flowers and wild strawberries. In the warm days, when she was in the woods, she liked to bathe in the crystal pool at the waterfall; and when Number Nip saw her, she was going to the pool to bathe. Number Nip was charmed with the beauty and grace of the Princess, and he said to himself, "I must see her better than I can in this thick bush." So he changed himself into a raven, and flew up and perched on a branch of one of the trees which was beside the pool. But now that he was a raven, he began to see like a raven, and to feel like a raven; and he liked better to watch a nest of field mice, which he thought would be a dainty supper for him, than to look at the Princess. But as he really wished to admire the Princess then much more than field mice, or anything else that he had seen, he thought it would be best that he should change himself into a young Prince, so that he might be able to see like a young Prince and feel like a young Prince. He then flew back into the bush, and made himself into a beautiful handsome young Prince; and he had no sooner become

a young Prince than he saw the Princess in all her beauty, and admired her more than any other living creature. Of course, he never looked at the field mice again, and he now thought nothing about his supper.

After the Princess and her maidens had finished their bathing, they took up their baskets of sweet-scented flowers and wild strawberries, and went home to the palace. Number Nip looked after the Princess with anxious loving eyes as long as she was in sight; but he wished to see her again when she should come back to the fountain, so he said to himself, "I will not leave this place until I see her once more;" and he remained at the fountain, watching day and night for her coming. She did not come for many days. But although Number Nip was looking anxiously for her every day, he was not idle all that time, as you will see when I tell you a little more of what soon happened.

At last the Princess did come back with her maidens, and Number Nip was delighted beyond measure when he saw her. But he did not remain hid in a bush this time at the fountain.

When the Princess and her maidens came to the fountain, they were astonished more than I can tell by what they saw. The rough dark rocks which the water used to dash over into the pool below were no longer to be seen, but in place of them beautiful white marble steps, rising one above another like a stair. The water did not now dash down in a roaring fall, but fell gently over the marble steps in pretty cascades, which glittered in the sun as his rays shone on them through the leafy branches. The pool below the fall, in which the Princess used to bathe, was changed into a large round marble basin, and from the middle of the basin a fountain spouted up high in the air, and watered with the glittering drops which fell from it the green grassy banks of the basin, and the trees and shrubs which grew around. Daisies, violets, forget-me-nots, and many other flowers of the most lovely colours appeared like beautiful gems amongst the grass, while roses, jasmines, and honeysuckles grew up amongst the shrubs. But the most wonderful thing of all which the Princess and her maidens saw was a cave or grotto which opened up in