en--but it is not difficult to guess
what happened next. It takes all the fairies in Fairyland to make a
little girl wise when she is only eleven years old; but even a stupid
little Prince without an idea in his head can teach her to laugh!

Now, when the peasant and his wife heard their daughter laughing in the
cherry orchard, they came hurrying out to see what could be the cause
of such a wonderful event. All the people in the village came running
too--men and women, boys and girls, one on the top of the other; and
they stood round in a ring and stared, while the merry little Prince
and the wise little girl in the stiff white frock laughed at nothing at
all.

"What is the meaning of it all?" asked the good people. "Is it the
fairies' doing?"

"Nothing of the sort," answered the Prince, again taking off his crown
and making them all his best court bow. "It is only because the sun
shone crookedly on my christening day. That is why I have come to
fetch Little Wisdom. I really hope you have no objection?"

He said this so very charmingly that everybody felt it would be most
impolite to object; besides, Little Wisdom had taken the Prince's hand
and seemed to have settled the question already. As for her parents,
they were overjoyed at the idea.

"After all," said her father, "the child will make some stir in the
world." His wife laughed and cried at the same moment.

"We shall lose Little Wisdom," she said; "but, at least, she will learn
to be like other children."

Prince Charming was as usual in a great hurry, for he could never
endure to wait for anything except his lessons; so he turned to the
nearest cherry tree and asked it to tell him the way home.

"If you don't know the way home without being told, you are not at all
the right sort of boy," answered the cherry tree. Of course, as we
know already, Prince Charming was the right sort of boy; and the very
next minute he marched once more into the royal palace, and by his side
tripped a sedate little girl in a stiff white frock.

"I have found Little Wisdom," he announced to his parents and the court
in general, as they sat over their afternoon tea. "She is going to
stay here and play with me for ever and ever. Isn't it fun?"

"The boy will never be serious," sighed the King, although he looked
with approval at the solemn face of the little girl in the stiff white
frock.

"I will teach him to be serious," said Little Wisdom, "because he has
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