t amused
him for a long time; and when a sudden gust of wind blew it overboard,
leaves and all, he felt quite disconsolate.

"Still there must be many live creatures in the world besides
caterpillars. I should like to see a few of them."

The cloak gave a little slip down, as if to say, "All right, My Prince,"
and bore him across the oak forest to a long fertile valley. It was made
up of cornfields, pasture fields, brooks, and ponds, and in it were a
quantity of living creatures, wild and tame. Cows, horses, lambs and
sheep fed in the meadows, pigs and fowls walked about the barnyards. In
lonelier places were rabbits, wild birds inhabited the fields and woods.

Through his wonderful spectacles the Prince could see everything, but he
was too high up to hear anything except a faint murmur, which only
aroused his anxiety to hear more.

"I wonder if my godmother would give me a second pair of ears?" he said.

Scarcely had he spoken, than he found lying on his lap the most curious
little parcel, all done up in silver paper. And it contained a pair of
silver ears, which, when he tried them on, fitted so exactly over his
own, that he hardly felt them, except for the difference they made in
his hearing.

[Illustration: THE PRINCE GAZED EAGERLY DOWN INTO THE LARGEST ROOM HE
HAD EVER BEHELD. [PAGE 40.]]

The sound which greeted his ears is one which we have heard many times,
but Prince Dolor, who had lived all his days in the dead silence of
Hopeless Tower, heard it for the first time. And oh! If you had seen his
face.

He listened, and listened, and looked and looked. The motion of the
animals delighted him; cows walking, horses galloping, little lambs and
calves running races across the meadows, were a great treat for him to
watch.

"Godmother," he said, having now begun to believe that, whether he saw
her or not, she could hear him--"Godmother, I should like better to see
a creature like myself. Couldn't you show me just one little boy?"

Suddenly, a shrill whistle startled him, even through his silver ears,
and looking downwards, he saw start up from behind a bush on a common,
something--

Neither a sheep, nor a horse, nor a cow--nothing upon four legs. This
creature had only two; but they were long, straight and strong. And it
had a lithe active body, and a curly head of black hair. It was a boy
about the Prince's own age--but, oh! so different. His face was almost
as red as his hands, and his shaggy hair was m