sailors set him and Mousta on shore, and then went back
sorrowfully to their ship, while the Prince and his attendant walked off
in what looked to them the most promising direction. They soon reached a
lovely green meadow on the border of a wood, which seemed to them so
pleasant after their long voyage that they sat down to rest in the shade
and amused themselves by watching the gambols and antics of a pretty
tiny monkey in the trees close by. The Prince presently became so
fascinated by it that he sprang up and tried to catch it, but it eluded
his grasp and kept just out of arm's reach, until it had made him
promise to follow wherever it led him, and then it sprang upon his
shoulder and whispered in his ear:

'We have no money, my poor Mannikin, and we are altogether badly off,
and at a loss to know what to do next.'

'Yes, indeed,' answered the Prince ruefully, 'and I have nothing to give
you, no sugar or biscuits, or anything that you like, my pretty one.'

'Since you are so thoughtful for me, and so patient about your own
affairs,' said the little monkey, 'I will show you the way to the Golden
Rock, only you must leave Mousta to wait for you here.'

Prince Mannikin agreed willingly, and then the little monkey sprang from
his shoulder to the nearest tree, and began to run through the wood from
branch to branch, crying, 'Follow me.'

This the Prince did not find quite so easy, but the little monkey waited
for him and showed him the easiest places, until presently the wood grew
thinner and they came out into a little clear grassy space at the foot
of a mountain, in the midst of which stood a single rock, about ten feet
high. When they were quite close to it the little monkey said:

'This stone looks pretty hard, but give it a blow with your spear and
let us see what will happen.'

So the Prince took his spear and gave the rock a vigorous dig, which
split off several pieces, and showed that, though the surface was thinly
coated with stone, inside it was one solid mass of pure gold.

Thereupon the little monkey said, laughing at his astonishment:

'I make you a present of what you have broken off; take as much of it as
you think proper.'

The Prince thanked her gratefully, and picked up one of the smallest of
the lumps of gold; as he did so the little monkey was suddenly
transformed into a tall and gracious lady, who said to him:

'If you are always as kind and persevering and easily contented as you
are now