ear fox?' asked the Princess. 'Is it that you are
overjoyed to think that the Prince who is to be my husband will soon be
restored to health? But let us hurry: we may be too late!'

'No, it is not that,' said the fox, laughing again. 'It is to think that
your remedy will be of no avail without the other ingredient, which is
the blood of a fox, and as I am not minded to supply it, I will skip the
reward you promised and be off.'

Thereupon he started away, pelting as hard as he could go.

The Princess saw that her only hope was to outwit the fox, and she
immediately thought of a plan to gain her end.

'Dear fox, do not run,' she said; 'that would be a pity now that the
remedy is in our own hands. The King is certain to reward us lavishly,
and surely there are plenty of other foxes among whom we can find one
willing to spare his blood to save the King's son. Let us go on, then,
and trust to our fortune.'

The fox, proud of the fact of being the most artful animal alive, never
thought for one moment that he could be exceeded in cunning by a simple
maiden, so he came back to the Princess, and together they walked
through the forest to the far end where the palace of the King showed in
the near distance.

'That is the place,' said the fox; 'but we haven't got the other
ingredient!'

'Oh yes, we have,' said the Princess, and, before the fox could be any
more artful, she hit him on the head with a stout branch she had picked
up, and with such force that he did not in the least object to the
necessary addition to the Prince's medicine being drawn from his own
veins.

Of course the Princess was sorry to have to do this. The fox had helped
her a great deal; and besides, she was a tender-hearted little thing,
and she wept like anything all the while she was compounding the remedy;
but princes are of more importance than foxes, particularly when they
are handsome princes who have been serpents and are wanted to make
handsome husbands.

So the Princess took the phial containing the very strange cure for
wounded heads, and proceeded straight to the King's palace.

They were all so disturbed, with the servants running about
distractedly, and the doctors quarrelling with each other, and the
courtiers standing about trying not to look bored, that no one took the
least notice of the Princess; but she was a pushing young lady, and
seeing the palace doors all open, she made her way from room to room
until at last she found the