most valuable piece of real money you possessed in order to
buy me, I can be free if you can think of anything that you really
like better than that half-crown, and if I can give it you."

"Oh, there are many things," said Jack. "I like going up this river
to Fairyland much better."

"But you are going there, master," said the fairy woman; "you were on
the way before I met with you."

"I like this little child better," said Jack; "I love this little
Mopsa. I should like her to belong to me."

"She is yours," answered the fairy woman; "she belongs to you already.
Think of something else."

Jack thought again, and was so long about it that at last the
beautiful slave said to him, "Master, do you see those purple
mountains?"

Jack turned round in the boat, and saw a splendid range of purple
mountains, going up and up. They were very great and steep, each had a
crown of snow, and the sky was very red behind them, for the sun was
going down.

"At the other side of those mountains is Fairyland," said the slave;
"but if you cannot think of something that you should like better to
have than your half-crown, I can never enter in. The river flows
straight up to yonder steep precipice, and there is a chasm in it
which pierces it, and through which the river runs down beneath, among
the very roots of the mountains, till it comes out at the other side.
Thousands and thousands of the small people will come when they see
the boat, each with a silken thread in his hand; but if there is a
slave in it, not all their strength and skill can tow it through. Look
at those rafts on the river; on them are the small people coming up."

Jack looked, and saw that the river was spotted with rafts, on which
were crowded brown fairy sailors, each one with three green stripes on
his sleeve, which looked like good conduct marks. All these sailors
were chattering very fast, and the rafts were coming down to meet the
boat.

"All these sailors to tow my slave!" said Jack. "I wonder, I do
wonder, what you are?" But the fairy woman only smiled, and Jack went
on: "I have thought of something that I should like much better than
my half-crown. I should like to have a little tiny bit of that purple
gown of yours with the gold border."

Then the fairy woman said, "I thank you, master. Now I can be free."
So she told Jack to lend her his knife, and with it she cut off a very
small piece of the skirt of her robe, and gave it to him. "Now mind,"
she