a where the Wise Woman
of the Wood lived, and one way was as good as another. Towards
sundown, a blackbird hopped on to his horse's head and sang to him, and
something in its song so reminded the King of Lady Whimsical's laughter
that he put out his hand to caress it. No sooner did he touch it,
however, than it turned into a squirrel, and scampered away from him so
mischievously that he was again reminded of Lady Whimsical and of the
way she, too, had run away from him. He put spurs to his horse and
chased the squirrel until he overtook it, when it immediately turned
into a field mouse and sprang into a large hole in the root of an old
elm tree; and after it went King Grumbelo without a moment's
hesitation. He left his horse outside, and threw his crown on the
ground, and crept into the hole as humbly as though he had not been a
King at all. The hole opened into a long, dark passage which grew
smaller and smaller as it wound deeper into the earth, so that King
Grumbelo could scarcely drag himself along on his hands and knees. It
came to an end at last, however, and he crawled into a cavern lighted
dimly by glow-worms. The field mouse was just ahead of him, but before
he could catch it he found that it was no longer there, and in its
place stood a tall witch woman, with a voice like a blackbird's, and
eyes like a squirrel's, and hair the colour of a field mouse.

"Tell me," said King Grumbelo, eagerly, "are you the Wise Woman of the
Wood?"

"Of course I am," said the witch woman. "Do you think any one else
would have been so much trouble to catch? And now that you have caught
me, what can I do for you?"

"I want you to remove the spell from the Lady Whimsical, so that she
may be able to speak to me," said King Grumbelo. The witch woman
laughed outright.

"There is no spell over the Lady Whimsical," she said. "She can talk
as much as she pleases."

"Then why has she never spoken to me?" asked the King in astonishment.

"You wished for the most silent woman in the world," said the Wise
Woman of the Wood. "Now that you have found her, why do you complain?"

For the first time in his life King Grumbelo felt distinctly foolish.

"I made a mistake," he owned. "I don't want a silent Queen at all."

"Then go back and tell her so," said the witch woman, promptly.

"Do you think that will make her come out from her house of rose
leaves?" asked King Grumbelo.

"I should n't wonder," said the Wise Woman of