the air that the earth
below looked like a black blanket spread out in the night; and then down
it came again, with the soldier still griping tight to the legs, until
at last it settled as light as a feather upon a balcony of the king's
palace; and when the soldier caught his wind again he found himself
without a hat, and with hardly any wits in his head.

There he sat upon the stool for a long time without daring to move, for
he did not know what might happen to him next. There he sat and sat, and
by-and-by his ears got cold in the night air, and then he noticed for
the first time that he had lost his head gear, and bethought himself of
the feather cap in his pocket. So out he drew it and clapped it upon his
head, and then--lo and behold!--he found he had become as invisible as
thin air--not a shred or a hair of him could be seen. "Well!" said he,
"here is another wonder, but I am safe now at any rate." And up he got
to find some place not so cool as where he sat.

He stepped in at an open window, and there he found himself in a
beautiful room, hung with cloth of silver and blue, and with chairs and
tables of white and gold; dozens and scores of waxlights shone like so
many stars, and lit every crack and cranny as bright as day, and there
at one end of the room upon a couch, with her eyelids closed and fast
asleep, lay the prettiest princess that ever the sun shone upon. The
soldier stood and looked and looked at her, and looked and looked at
her, until his heart melted within him like soft butter, and then he
kissed her.

"Who is that?" said the princess, starting up, wide-awake, but not a
soul could she see, because the soldier had the feather cap upon his
head.

"It is I," said he, "and I am King of the Wind, and ten times greater
than the greatest of kings here below. One day I saw you walking in your
garden and fell in love with you, and now I have come to ask you if you
will marry me and be my wife?"

"But how can I marry you?" said the princess, "without seeing you?"

"You shall see me," said the soldier, "all in good time. Three days
from now I will come again, and will show myself to you, but just now it
cannot be. But if I come, will you marry me?"

"Yes I will," said the princess, "for I like the way you talk--that I
do!"

Thereupon the soldier kissed her and said good-bye, and then stepped
out of the window as he had stepped in. He sat him down upon his
three-legged stool. "I wish," said he, "to b