prince. "More than you would believe, mother."

"A fairy can believe anything that ever was or ever could be," said the
old woman.

"Then are you a fairy?" asked the prince.

"Yes," said she.

"Then what do you do for things not to believe?" asked the prince.

"There's plenty of them--everything that never was nor ever could be."

"Plenty, I grant you," said the prince. "But do you believe there could
be a princess who never saw the daylight? Do you believe that now?"

This the prince said, not that he doubted the princess, but that he
wanted the fairy to tell him more. She was too old a fairy, however, to
be caught so easily.

"Of all people, fairies must not tell secrets. Besides, she's a
princess."

"Well, I'll tell you a secret. I'm a prince."

"I know that."

"How do you know it?"

"By the curl of the third eyelash on your left eyelid."

"Which corner do you count from?"

"That's a secret."

"Another secret? Well, at least, if I am a prince, there can be no harm
in telling me about a princess."

"It's just the princes I can't tell."

"There ain't any more of them--are there?" said the prince.

"What! you don't think you're the only prince in the world, do you?"

"Oh, dear, no! not at all. But I know there's one too many just at
present, except the princess----"

"Yes, yes, that's it," said the fairy.

"What's it?" asked the prince.

But he could get nothing more out of the fairy, and had to go to bed
unanswered, which was something of a trial.

Now wicked fairies will not be bound by the law which the good fairies
obey, and this always seems to give the bad the advantage over the good,
for they use means to gain their ends which the others will not. But it
is all of no consequence, for what they do never succeeds; nay, in the
end it brings about the very thing they are trying to prevent. So
you see that somehow, for all their cleverness, wicked fairies are
dreadfully stupid, for, although from the beginning of the world they
have really helped instead of thwarting the good fairies, not one of
them is a bit wiser for it. She will try the bad thing just as they all
did before her; and succeeds no better of course.

The prince had so far stolen a march upon the swamp-fairy that she
did not know he was in the neighbourhood until after he had seen the
princess those three times. When she knew it, she consoled herself by
thinking that the princess must be far too proud and too modest for an