a
night's lodging.

The fish then dived under, George plunged after it into the pool,
and followed the shimmering light that emanated from his scaly guide.
Sometimes the rocky passages, through which he crawled on his stomach in
shallow water, became so small that he bumped his head, and had to press
his shoulders together in order to pass, and often he thought that he
would stick fast among the rocks, like a hatchet in a block of wood.
He always managed to free himself, however, and finally reached the big
basin, where a crowd of maidens with green hair and scaly tails were
sporting, and they invited him to come and play tag with them. But the
fish advised him not to stop with the idle hussies, and then parted from
him.

George was alone once more, and he let himself be borne along on the
rushing subterranean stream. At length it poured out into the open air,
as the Vitale river, and the boy fell with it over a wall of rock into
a large pool surrounded by thick greenery. There was a great splash, the
trout were frightened to death, a dog began to bark, and a shepherd,
who was sitting on the bank, sprang up, for the coloured bundle that had
just shot over the falls, now arose from the water and bore the form of
a pretty boy of thirteen years.

This apparition soon stood before him, puffing, and dripping, and
regarding, with greedy eyes, the bread and cheese which the old man was
eating. The shepherd was very, very old, and deaf, but he understood the
language of the boy's eyes, and as he had just milked the goats, he held
out a cup of the milk to him with a friendly gesture, and broke off a
piece of bread for him. Then he invited George to sit down beside him in
the sun, which had been up for an hour.

The prince had never before eaten such a meal, but as he sat there in
the sun, munching the bread, and drinking goats' milk, he would have
thought any one a fool who called him an ill-fated child.

After he had satisfied his hunger, he thanked the shepherd, and offered
him one of the groschen which the fish had given him, but the old man
refused it.

George insisted, for it hurt his pride to take anything as a gift from
a man clad in rags, but the shepherd still declined, and added, after he
had noticed the fine clothes of the little prince, which the water
had not entirely spoiled: "What the poor man gives gladly, no gold can
repay. Keep your groschen."

George blushed scarlet, put his money in his pocket, and