d, though," she
added, sighing, "that I am going to have my castle without a Prince,
after all."

"Would it do," asked the traveller in the dusty brown cloak, "if you
were to have a Prince without a castle?"

"Oh, no!" answered the Princess, decidedly. "If you knew how beautiful
my castle in the air is, you would not even ask such a stupid question!"

Then she again took up her small lace handkerchief, and she brushed the
dust from her gold and silver gown, and polished up her bright little
gold crown, and made herself as neat and dainty as a Princess should
be; for, in Nonamia, one never knows what may happen next, and it is
just as well to be prepared. And, in fact, no sooner was she quite
tidy than the West Wind came hurrying along with her castle in the air;
and the Princess gave a shout of joy and sprang inside it; and the West
Wind blew, and blew, and blew, until the castle that was packed full of
happiness, and the little Princess in the gold and silver gown, were
both completely out of sight. The traveller looked after them and felt
a little forlorn; then he picked up his stick and walked on until he
came to the magician's castle. This may seem a little surprising, as
he had no wings of any kind and the magician's castle was in the air;
but it must be remembered that it all happened in Nonamia.

"Dear, dear! Here 's another of them!" grumbled the magician, when he
looked out of his window and saw the stranger standing below. After
being alone for seven hundred and seventy-seven years, it was a little
exhausting to have two visitors on the same day. Besides, a traveller
in a dusty brown cloak is not at all the same thing as a dainty
Princess in a gold and silver gown.

"Good-day," said the stranger. "Are you the magician who has given a
castle in the air to a Princess in a gold and silver frock with a
bright little crown on her head?"

"Very likely; but I cannot say for certain," said the absent-minded
magician. "I believe there was something of the kind, now you come to
mention it; but I could n't tell you what it was. However, I don't
mean to give away any more castles in the air, so the sooner you leave
me alone, the better."

"I don't want a castle in the air," laughed the stranger. "People who
spend their lives in building real houses never have time to build
castles in the air! _I_ want to find the Princess, not the castle."

"That you will never do as long as she is happy in it," said