sought her in many lands, until one day, in a far eastern country,
he found her sitting in a tent, by the side of an old, white-haired
hermit. Cherry was wild with delight. He flew to her shoulder,
caressed her hair with his beak, and cooed in her ear.

"You dear, lovely little thing!" said Zelia. "Will you stay with me?
If you will, I will love you always."

"Ah, Zelia, see what you have done!" laughed the hermit. At that
instant, the white dove vanished, and Prince Cherry stood there, as
handsome and charming as ever, and with a look of kindness and modesty
in his eyes which had never been there before. At the same time, the
hermit stood up, his flowing hair changed to shining gold, and his face
became a lovely woman's face; it was the Fairy Candide. "Zelia has
broken your spell," she said to the Prince, "as I meant she should,
when you were worthy of her love."

Zelia and Prince Cherry fell at the fairy's feet. But with a beautiful
smile she bade them come to their kingdom. In a trice, they were
transported to the Prince's palace, where King Suliman greeted them
with tears of joy. He gave back the throne, with all his heart, and
King Cherry ruled again, with Zelia for his queen.

He wore the little gold ring all the rest of his life, but never once
did it have to prick him hard enough to make his finger bleed.

THE GOLD IN THE ORCHARD[1]

[1] An Italian folk tale.

There was once a farmer who had a fine olive orchard. He was very
industrious, and the farm always prospered under his care. But he knew
that his three sons despised the farm work, and were eager to make
wealth fast, through adventure.

When the farmer was old, and felt that his time had come to die, he
called the three sons to him and said, "My sons, there is a pot of gold
hidden in the olive orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it."

The sons tried to get him to tell them in what part of the orchard the
gold was hidden; but he would tell them nothing more.

After the farmer was dead, the sons went to work to find the pot of
gold; since they did not know where the hiding-place was, they agreed
to begin in a line, at one end of the orchard, and to dig until one of
them should find the money.

They dug until they had turned up the soil from one end of the orchard
to the other, round the tree-roots and between them. But no pot of
gold was to be found. It seemed as if some one must have stolen it, or
as if the farmer had been wande