will try not to anger the Queen."

As Zella started to go, Inga's eyes suddenly fell upon her shoes and
instantly he recognized them as his own. For only in Pingaree were
shoes shaped in this manner: high at the heel and pointed at the toes.

"Stop!" he cried in an excited voice, and the girl obeyed, wonderingly.
"Tell me," he continued, more gently, "where did you get those shoes?"

"My father brought them to me from Regos," she answered.

"From Regos!"

"Yes. Are they not pretty?" asked Zella, looking down at her feet to
admire them. "One of them my father found by the palace wall, and the
other on an ash-heap. So he brought them to me and they fit me
perfectly."

By this time Inga was trembling with eager joy, which of course the
girl could not understand.

"What is your name, little maid?" he asked.

"I am called Zella, and my father is Nikobob, the charcoal-burner."

"Zella is a pretty name. I am Inga, Prince of Pingaree," said he, "and
the shoes you are now wearing, Zella, belong to me. They were not cast
away, as your father supposed, but were lost. Will you let me have them
again?"

Zella's eyes filled with tears.

"Must I give up my pretty shoes, then?" she asked. "They are the only
ones I have ever owned."

Inga was sorry for the poor child, but he knew how important it was
that he regain possession of the Magic Pearls. So he said, pleadingly:

"Please let me have them, Zella. See! I will exchange for them the
shoes I now have on, which are newer and prettier than the others."

The girl hesitated. She wanted to please the boy Prince, yet she hated
to exchange the shoes which her father had brought her as a present.

"If you will give me the shoes," continued the boy, anxiously, "I will
promise to make you and your father and mother rich and prosperous.
Indeed, I will promise to grant any favors you may ask of me," and he
sat down upon the floor and drew off the shoes he was wearing and held
them toward the girl.

"I'll see if they will fit me," said Zella, taking off her left
shoe--the one that contained the Pink Pearl--and beginning to put on
one of Inga's.

Just then Queen Cor, angry at being made to wait for her whip with the
seven lashes, rushed into the room to find Inga. Seeing the boy sitting
upon the floor beside Zella, the woman sprang toward him to beat him
with her clenched fists; but Inga had now slipped on the shoe and the
Queen's blows could not reach his body.

Then Cor