rs!" exclaimed the High Ki maids
in the same breath.

"We want to hop! We want to hop! Please--PLEASE let us hop!" implored
the bald-headed Ki, winking their left eyes at Wul-Takim.

"By all means let us become grasshoppers," said King Terribus, smiling;
and Wul-Takim added:

"I'm sure your soldiers would enjoy being June-bugs, for then they
wouldn't have to work. Isn't that so, boys?"

The bewildered soldiers looked at one another in perplexity, and the
still more bewildered sorcerer gazed on the speakers with staring eyes
and wide-open mouth.

"I insist," said Prince Marvel, "upon your turning us into grasshoppers
and your soldiers into June-bugs, as you promised. If you do not, then
I will flog you--as I promised."

"Very well," returned the sorcerer, with a desperate look upon his
face; "I'll go and find the enchantment."

"And we'll go with you," remarked the prince, pleasantly.

So the entire party accompanied Kwytoffle into the house, where they
entered a large room that was in a state of much disorder.

"Let me see," said the sorcerer, rubbing his ears, as if trying to
think; "I wonder if I put them in this cupboard. You see," he
explained, "no one has ever before dared me to transform him into a
June-bug or grasshopper, so I have almost forgotten where I keep my
book of enchantments. No, it's not in the cupboard," he continued,
looking there; "but it surely must be in this chest."

It was not in the chest, either, and so the sorcerer continued to look
in all sorts of queer places for his book of enchantments, without
finding it. Whenever he paused in his search Prince Marvel would say,
sternly:

"Go on! Find the book! Hunt it up. We are all anxious to become
grasshoppers." And then Kwytoffle would set to work again, although
big drops of perspiration were now streaming down his face.

Finally he pulled an old book from underneath the pillow of his bed,
and crying, "Here it is!" carried it to the window.

He turned a few leaves of the book and then said:

"How unfortunate! The compound I require to change you into
grasshoppers must be mixed on the first day of September; and as this
is now the eighth day of September I must wait nearly a year before I
can work the enchantment."

"How about the June-bugs?" asked Nerle.

"Oh! Ah! The June-bug mixture can only be made at the dark o' the
moon," said the sorcerer, pretending to read, "and that is three weeks
from now."

"Let me re