simpleton Bobo
was made ready for his journey.

Before he left the castle, Bobo went down to the kitchen to say good-bye
to Tilda.

"What, off again?" said the little kitchen-maid. "Where are you going
now?"

"The Princess has lost a half-hour and I am going in search of it," said
Bobo, proudly. And he told how the Princess herself had commanded him to
seek the half-hour through the world, and promised to bring Tilda a
splendid present when he returned.

The good kitchen-maid said little, for she feared lest some misadventure
overtake the poor simpleton; but when the chief cook was not looking,
she tucked a fresh currant-bun into Bobo's pocket, and wished him the
best of good fortune.

So Bobo went to the castle gate, and mounted his horse, which stumbled
and was blind in one eye.

"Good-bye, Bobo," cried the assembled courtiers, who were almost beside
themselves with laughter at the simpleton and his errand. "Don't fail to
bring back the lost half-hour!"

So Bobo rode over the hills and far away. Every now and then he would
stop a passer-by and ask him if he had seen a lost half-hour.

The first person whom he thus questioned was an old man who was
wandering down the high road that leads from the Kingdom of the East to
the Kingdom of the West.

"A lost half-hour?" said the old man. "I've lost something much more
serious, I've lost my reputation. You have n't seen a lost reputation
lying about here, have you? It was very dignified and wore
tortoise-shell glasses."

But Bobo had to answer "No," and the old man wandered on again.

Another day the simpleton encountered a tall, dark, fierce kind of
fellow, who answered his polite question with a scream of rage.

"A half-hour," he roared. "No, I have n't seen your half-hour; I would
n't tell you if I had; what's more, I don't want to see it. I'm looking
for something I've lost myself. I've lost my temper. I lost it two years
ago at home, and have n't been able to find it anywhere since. Answer
me, you silly, have you seen a lost temper anywhere? It's about the size
of a large melon and has sharp little points."

On Bobo's answering "No," this dreadful person uttered so perfectly
awful a screech of rage, that Bobo's horse took fright and ran away with
him, and it was all that Bobo could do to rein him in three miles
farther down the road.

Still farther along, Bobo came to Zizz, the capital city of the Kingdom
of the Seven Brooks, and was taken before the