ee appeared millions
of smiling faces, nodding and singing. "Man should know everything;
man is the lord of the earth." The tree of knowledge no longer wept
tears of blood, for the dewdrops shone like glittering stars.

"Come, come," continued that thrilling voice, and the prince
followed the call. At every step his cheeks glowed, and the blood
rushed wildly through his veins. "I must follow," he cried; "it is not
a sin, it cannot be, to follow beauty and joy. I only want to see
her sleep, and nothing will happen unless I kiss her, and that I
will not do, for I have strength to resist, and a determined will."

The fairy threw off her dazzling attire, bent back the boughs, and
in another moment was hidden among them.

"I have not sinned yet," said the prince, "and I will not;" and
then he pushed aside the boughs to follow the princess. She was
lying already asleep, beautiful as only a fairy in the garden of
paradise could be. She smiled as he bent over her, and he saw tears
trembling out of her beautiful eyelashes. "Do you weep for me?" he
whispered. "Oh weep not, thou loveliest of women. Now do I begin to
understand the happiness of paradise; I feel it to my inmost soul,
in every thought. A new life is born within me. One moment of such
happiness is worth an eternity of darkness and woe." He stooped and
kissed the tears from her eyes, and touched her lips with his.

A clap of thunder, loud and awful, resounded through the trembling
air. All around him fell into ruin. The lovely fairy, the beautiful
garden, sunk deeper and deeper. The prince saw it sinking down in
the dark night till it shone only like a star in the distance
beneath him. Then he felt a coldness, like death, creeping over him;
his eyes closed, and he became insensible.

When he recovered, a chilling rain was beating upon him, and a
sharp wind blew on his head. "Alas! what have I done?" he sighed; "I
have sinned like Adam, and the garden of paradise has sunk into the
earth." He opened his eyes, and saw the star in the distance, but it
was the morning star in heaven which glittered in the darkness.

Presently he stood up and found himself in the depths of the
forest, close to the cavern of the Winds, and the mother of the
Winds sat by his side. She looked angry, and raised her arm in the air
as she spoke. "The very first evening!" she said. "Well, I expected
it! If you were my son, you should go into the sack."

"And there he will have to go at last