n the world.

As time went along he laid heavier and heavier tasks upon the Demon's
back, and demanded of him more and more; but all the while the Demon
kept his own counsel, and said never a word.

One morning, as the Tailor sat in his shop window taking the world
easy--for he had little or nothing to do now--he heard a great hubbub in
the street below, and when he looked down he saw that it was the king's
daughter passing by. It was the first time that the Tailor had seen her,
and when he saw her his heart stood still within him, and then began
fluttering like a little bird, for one so beautiful was not to be met
with in the four corners of the world. Then she was gone.

All that day the little Tailor could do nothing but sit and think of the
princess, and the next morning when the Demon came he was thinking of
her still.

"What hast thou for me to do to-day?" said the Demon, as he always said
of a morning.

The little Tailor was waiting for the question.

"I would like you," said he, "to send to the king's palace, and to ask
him to let me have his daughter for my wife."

"Thou shalt have thy desire," said the Demon. Thereupon he smote his
hands together like a clap of thunder, and instantly the walls of the
room clove asunder, and there came out four-and-twenty handsome youths,
clad in cloth of gold and silver. After these four-and-twenty there came
another one who was the chief of them all, and before whom, splendid as
they were, the four-and-twenty paled like stars in daylight. "Go to the
king's palace," said the Demon to that one, "and deliver this message:
The Tailor of Tailors, the Master of Masters, and One Greater than a
King asks for his daughter to wife."

"To hear is to obey," said the other, and bowed his forehead to the
earth.

Never was there such a hubbub in the town as when those five-and-twenty,
in their clothes of silver and gold, rode through the streets to the
king's palace. As they came near, the gates of the palace flew open
before them, and the king himself came out to meet them. The leader
of the five-and-twenty leaped from his horse, and, kissing the ground
before the king, delivered his message: "The Tailor of Tailors, the
Master of Masters, and One Greater than a King asks for thy daughter to
wife."

When the king heard what the messenger said, he thought and pondered
a long time. At last he said, "If he who sent you is the Master of
Masters, and greater than a king, let him sen