ever since he was born; and which, as he was
now about ten years old, had split a good deal in the back and arms, but
in length they were very suitable.

"But there can be no one down there," said the magician. "I see deep
water."

"Of course there is nobody there," replied the boy. "Were you told to go
down there to meet anybody? Because, if you were, you had better take
some tubs down with you, to sit in. But all I know about it is, that
it's the lowest part of this old hole of a castle."

"Boy," said Alcahazar, "there is a young lady shut up down here
somewhere. Do you know where she is?"

"How old is she?" asked the boy.

"About seventeen," said the magician.

"O then! if she is no older than that, I should think she'd be in the
preserve-closet, if she knew where it was," and the boy pointed to a
great door, barred and locked, where the dwarf, who had a very sweet
tooth, kept all his preserves locked up tight and fast. Zamcar stooped
and looked through the key-hole of this door, and there, sure enough,
was the Princess! So the boy proved to be smarter than all the
magicians. Each of our five friends now took from under his cloak a
crowbar, and in a minute they had forced open the great door. But they
had scarcely entered, when the dwarf, springing on the arm of the chair
to which the Princess was still tied, drew his sword, and clapped it to
her throat, crying out, that if the magicians came one step nearer, he
would slice her head off.

"O ho!" cried they, "is that your game?"

"Yes indeed," said the chuckling dwarf; "can you play at it?"

The magicians did not appear to think that they could; but Ting-a-ling,
who was still on the Princess's shoulder, though unseen by the dwarf,
suddenly shouted, "I can play!" and in an instant he had driven his
little sword into the dwarf's eye, who immediately sprang from the chair
with a howl of anguish. While he was yelling and skipping about, with
his hands to his eyes, the poor boy, who hated him worse than pills,
clapped a great jar of preserves over him, and sat down on the bottom of
the jar! The magicians then untied the Princess; and as she looked weak
and faint, Zamcar, the youngest, took from under his cloak a little
table, set with everything hot and nice for supper; and when the
Princess had eaten something and taken a cup of tea, she felt a great
deal better. Alcahazar lifted up the jar from the dwarf, and there was
the little rascal, so covered up with st