I cheer up?
I am turned out of my kingdom. I haven't got my father's address, and I
have to face my enemies without a single human being to stand by me.'

[Illustration: Instantly a flight of winged arrows crossed the garden.]

'That's not true, at any rate,' said the baker's boy, whose name was
Erinaceus, 'you've got me. If you'll let me be your squire, I'll follow
you round the world and help you to fight your enemies.'

'You won't be let,' said the Princess sadly, 'but I thank you very much
all the same.'

She dried her eyes and stood up.

'I must go,' she said, 'and I've nowhere to go to.'

Now as soon as the Princess had been turned out of the palace, the Queen
said, 'You'd much better have beheaded her for treason.' And the King
said, 'I'll tell the archers to pick her off as she leaves the grounds.'

So when she stood up, out there among the oleanders, some one on the
terrace cried, 'There she is!' and instantly a flight of winged arrows
crossed the garden. At the cry Erinaceus flung himself in front of her,
clasping her in his arms and turning his back to the arrows. The Royal
Archers were a thousand strong and all excellent shots. Erinaceus felt a
thousand arrows sticking into his back.

'And now my last friend is dead,' cried the Princess. But being a very
strong princess, she dragged him into the shrubbery out of sight of the
palace, and then dragged him into the wood and called aloud on Benevola,
Queen of the Fairies, and Benevola came.

'They've killed my only friend,' said the Princess, 'at least.... Shall
I pull out the arrows?'

'If you do,' said the Fairy, 'he'll certainly bleed to death.'

'And he'll die if they stay in,' said the Princess.

'Not necessarily,' said the Fairy; 'let me cut them a little shorter.'
She did, with her fairy pocket-knife. 'Now,' she said, 'I'll do what I
can, but I'm afraid it'll be a disappointment to you both. Erinaceus,'
she went on, addressing the unconscious baker's boy with the stumps of
the arrows still sticking in him, 'I command you, as soon as I have
vanished, to assume the form of a hedge-pig. The hedge-pig,' she
exclaimed to the Princess, 'is the only nice person who can live
comfortably with a thousand spikes sticking out of him. Yes, I know
there are porcupines, but porcupines are vicious and ill-mannered.
Good-bye!'

And with that she vanished. So did Erinaceus, and the Princess found
herself alone among the oleanders; and on the green turf was