Well, Jacob Stuck could hardly wait for the night to come to summon the
Genie of Good Luck. "I want to sup with the princess again," said he.

"To hear is to obey," said the Genie of Good Luck; and, as soon as he
had made everything ready, away he flew to fetch the princess again.

Well, they feasted and drank, and the music played, and the candles were
as bright as day, and beautiful girls sang and danced, and Jacob Stuck
was as happy as a king. But the princess kept her scissors by her, and,
when Jacob Stuck was not looking, she contrived to snip off a lock of
his hair from over his right ear, and nobody saw what was done but the
Genie of Good Luck.

And it came towards midnight.

Once more the door opened, and the beautiful serving-lad came into the
room, carrying the tray of silver with something upon it wrapped in a
napkin. This time Jacob Stuck gave the princess an emerald ring for a
keepsake, and the wonder of it was that every morning two other rings
just like it would drop from it.

Then twelve o'clock sounded, the lights went out, and the Genie took the
princess home again.

But the Genie had seen what the princess had done. As soon as he had
taken her safe home, he struck his palms together and summoned all his
companions. "Go," said he, "throughout the town and trim a lock of hair
from over the right ear of every man in the whole place;" and so they
did, from the king himself to the beggar-man at the gates. As for the
prime-minister, the Genie himself trimmed two locks of hair from him,
one from over each of his ears, so that the next morning he looked as
shorn as an old sheep. In the morning all the town was in a hubbub, and
everybody was wondering how all the men came to have their hair clipped
as it was. But the princess had brought the lock of Jacob Stuck's hair
away with her wrapped up in a piece of paper, and there it was.

As for the ring Jacob Stuck had given to her, why, the next morning
there were three of them, and the king thought he had never heard tell
of such a wonderful thing.

"I tell you," said the prime-minister, "there is nothing in it but a
piece of good luck, and not a grain of virtue. It's just a piece of good
luck--that's all it is."

"No matter," said the king; "I never saw the like of it in all my life
before. And now, what are we going to do?"

The prime-minister could think of nothing.

Then the princess spoke up. "Your majesty," she said, "I can find the
young man