softly to the genius's room, and exchanged his faded flowers for those
she held. Then she crept back to her own bed and fell fast asleep.

At break of day, the old woman ran to see her son, and found, as she
knew she would, a bunch of dead flowers in his hand. She next passed
on to the bedside of the princess, who still lay asleep grasping the
withered flowers. But she did not believe any the more that her guest
was a man, and so she told her son. So they put their heads together and
laid another trap for her.

After breakfast the genius gave his arm to his guest, and asked her to
come with him into the garden. For some time they walked about looking
at the flowers, the genius all the while pressing her to pick any she
fancied. But the princess, suspecting a trap, inquired roughly why they
were wasting the precious hours in the garden, when, as men, they should
be in the stables looking after their horses. Then the genius told his
mother that she was quite wrong, and his deliverer was certainly a man.
But the old woman was not convinced for all that.

She would try once more she said, and her son must lead his visitor
into the armoury, where hung every kind of weapon used all over the
world--some plain and bare, others ornamented with precious stones--and
beg her to make choice of one of them. The princess looked at them
closely, and felt the edges and points of their blades, then she hung at
her belt an old sword with a curved blade, that would have done credit
to an ancient warrior. After this she informed the genius that she would
start early next day and take Sunlight with her.

And there was nothing for the mother to do but to submit, though she
still stuck to her own opinion.

The princess mounted Sunlight, and touched him with her spur, when the
old horse, who was galloping at her side, suddenly said:

'Up to this time, mistress, you have obeyed my counsels and all has gone
well. Listen to me once more, and do what I tell you. I am old, and--now
that there is someone to take my place, I will confess it--I am afraid
that my strength is not equal to the task that lies before me. Give me
leave, therefore, to return home, and do you continue your journey under
the care of my brother. Put your faith in him as you put it in me, and
you will never repent. Wisdom has come early to Sunlight.'

'Yes, my old comrade, you have served me well; and it is only through
your help that up to now I have been victorious. So g