g's son returns, we will increase
and multiply exceedingly and be like locusts in the land!'

So all through that land the trees, though it was spring, stayed as if
it were mid-winter; and all the fishes swam down to the sea; and all
the birds flew over the sea, away into other countries; and all the
foxes increased and multiplied, and became like locusts in the land.

Now when the trees, and the birds, and the beasts, and the fishes led
the way the good folk of the country discovered that the queen was a
criminal. So, after the way of the flesh, they took the queen and
her little son, and bound them, and threw them into the deepest and
darkest dungeon they could find; and said they: 'Until you tell us
where the king's son is, there you stay and starve!'

The king's son was playing all alone in his dungeon with the mice who
brought him food from the palace larder, when the queen and her son
were thrown down to him fast bound, as though he were as dangerous as
a den of lions. At first he was terribly afraid when he found himself
pursued into his last hiding-place; but presently he gathered from the
queen's remarks that she was quite powerless to do him harm.

'Oh, what a wicked woman I am!' she moaned; and began crying
lamentably, as if she hoped to melt the stone walls which formed her
prison.

Presently her little son cried, 'Mother, take off my brother's crown;
it pricks me!' And the king's son sat in his corner, and cried to
himself with grief over the harm that his step-mother's wickedness had
brought about.

'Mother,' cried the queen's son again, 'night and day since I have
worn it, it pricks me; I cannot sleep!'

But the queen's heart was still hard; not if she could help, would she
yet take off from her son the crown.

Hours went by, and the queen and her son grew hungry. 'We shall be
starved to death!' she cried. 'Now I see what a wicked woman I am!'

'Mother,' cried the queen's son, 'some one is putting food into my
mouth!' 'No one,' said the queen, 'is putting any into mine. Now I
know what a wicked woman I am!'

Presently the king's son came to the queen also, and began feeding
her. 'Someone is putting food into _my_ mouth, now!' cried the queen.
'If it is poisoned I shall die in agony! I wish,' she said, 'I wish I
knew your brother were not dead; if I have killed him what a wicked
woman I am!'

'Dear step-mother,' said the king's son 'I am not dead, I am here.'

'Here?' cried the queen, shakin