ing in the world," he said. "I suppose I
must stay here and cry until I get thin." And the idea so tickled
him, that he laughed himself to sleep.

The Prince and his party kept together, and hurried from the prison
as fast as they could. When the day broke they had gone several
miles, and then they stopped to rest. "Where is that Jolly-cum-pop?"
said the Prince. "I suppose he has gone home. He is a pretty fellow
to lead us into this trouble and then desert us! How are we to find
the way back to his house? Course-marker, can you tell us the
direction in which we should go?"

"Not until to-night, your Highness," answered the course-marker,
"when I can set my instrument by the stars."

The Prince's party was now in a doleful plight. Every one was very
hungry; they were in an open plain, no house was visible, and they
knew not which way to go. They wandered about for some time, looking
for a brook or a spring where they might quench their thirst; and
then a rabbit sprang out from some bushes. The whole party
immediately started off in pursuit of the rabbit. They chased it
here, there, backward and forward, through hollows and over hills,
until it ran quite away and disappeared. Then they were more tired,
thirsty, and hungry than before; and, to add to their miseries, when
night came on the sky was cloudy, and the course-marker could not set
his instrument by the stars. It would be difficult to find sixteen
more miserable people than the Prince and his companions when they
awoke the next morning from their troubled sleep on the hard ground.
Nearly starved, they gazed at one another with feelings of despair.

"I feel," said the Prince, in a weak voice, "that there is nothing I
would not do to obtain food. I would willingly become a slave if my
master would give me a good breakfast."

"So would I," ejaculated each of the others.

About an hour after this, as they were all sitting disconsolately
upon the ground, they saw, slowly approaching, a large cart drawn by
a pair of oxen. On the front of the cart, which seemed to be heavily
loaded, sat a man, with a red beard, reading a book. The boys, when
they saw the cart, set up a feeble shout, and the man, lifting his
eyes from his book, drove directly toward the group on the ground.
Dismounting, he approached Prince Hassak, who immediately told him
his troubles and implored relief. "We will do any thing," said the
Prince, "to obtain food."

Standing for a minute in a refle