" he asked the Queen.

"I'm sure I do not know," replied the royal lady; "but you might try
her with a kiss."

So one of the nicest young men sent a kiss to the Princess, and the
King tied it to the end of the line and put it in the lake. The sinker
carried it down through the sugar-syrup until the kiss was just before
the sweet, red lips of the pretty Princess. She took the kiss at once,
as the Queen had guessed, and the King pulled up the line, with the
Princess at the end of it, until he finally landed her on the shore.

Then all the people shouted for joy and the Queen took the Princess
Truella home to change her clothes, for they were very sticky.

"What does the Prince Jollikin like best?" asked the King.

"A laugh!" replied a dozen at once, for every one knew the Prince's
failing.

Then one of the girls laughed quite hard, and the King tied it to the
end of the line and dropped it into the lake. The Prince caught the
laugh at once, and was quickly drawn from the syrup and likewise sent
home to change his clothes.

Then the King looked around on the people and asked:

"What does the Chamberlain Nuphsed like best?"

But they were all silent, for Nuphsed liked so many things it was
difficult to say which he liked best. So again the King was obliged to
go to the Wise Donkey, in order to find out how he should bait the line
to catch the royal chamberlain.

The Wise Donkey happened to be busy that day over his own affairs and
was annoyed at being consulted so frequently without receiving anything
in return for his wisdom. But he pretended to consider the matter, as
was his wont, and said:

"I believe the royal chamberlain is fond of apples. Try to catch him
with a red apple."

At this the King and his people hunted all over the kingdom, and at
last found a tree with one solitary red apple growing on a little
branch nearly at the top. But unfortunately some one had sawed off the
trunk of the tree, close up to the branches, and had carried it away
and chopped it up for kindling wood. For this reason there was no way
to climb the tree to secure the apple.

While the King and the people were considering how they might get into
the tree, Prince Thinkabit came up to them and asked what they wanted.

"We want the apple," replied the King, "but some one has cut away the
tree trunk, so that we can not climb up."

Prince Thinkabit rubbed the top of his head a minute, to get his brain
into good working order. I