ed quietly in his ear. "You lost your temper because things did
not go just to suit you. Even if you are a prince, the world cannot
always run just to suit your whims. What's worse, you hurt a poor
creature who loves you. I don't think that's being the sort of a prince
your father would be proud of, do you?"

The Prince was greatly embarrassed, and thrust his hands deep into his
pockets to make himself seem full-grown up--so he would not cry! He
promised to be good forever after.

But he wasn't, and the ring pricked him often. After a time he paid
hardly any attention to the ring at all. Finally he made up his mind
that a prince ought to be able to decide for himself what was right or
wrong. Besides, the ring pricked so hard and so often that it made his
finger bleed. So he threw it away entirely.

Just after this he met Celia, the loveliest girl he had ever seen. It
seemed to him he could never be happy until he had made her his wife;
and he lost no time in asking her to marry him.

"Sire, I cannot," said the girl.

The Prince was indignant, for he thought any girl should be proud to
have him offer to marry her and make her Queen.

"Sire," Celia went on, "you are handsome and rich and powerful, I know;
but the man I marry must be good."

This speech made the Prince so angry that he ordered his men to take
Celia off to the palace as a prisoner.

[Illustration: "THIS LITTLE GOLD RING IS MY GIFT TO YOU"]

Now, the Prince had a foster-brother who was a very wicked man. When
the Prince told him about Celia, he said:

"What! a peasant girl refuse to marry the Prince! How ridiculous! The
whole kingdom would laugh if they knew about it."

This speech hurt the Prince's pride, and he decided to make Celia
consent to marry him at any cost. He rushed off to find her. His men
had given him the key to the cell where they had imprisoned her. But
the cell was quite empty.

The Prince was terribly angry, and swore that he would put to death the
person who had helped Celia to escape. It happened that this threat
gave some of the Prince's wicked friends the very chance they wanted to
get rid of the Prince's tutor, an old nobleman whom they all hated
because he was good.

Soon these wicked men had everyone in the court whispering: "Yes, it
was Suliman who helped Celia escape." Some men even were found who
swore that Suliman himself had told them about it. When the Prince
heard it he was still more angry. To think that his