f the stars, she would not have known
where to step. A long plain stretched before her--no trees or bushes
even broke the wide expanse. There was no shelter of any kind, and the
Princess found herself obliged to walk on and on, for the wind was very
cold, and she dared not let herself rest. This night and the next day
were the hardest part of all the journey, and seemed even more so,
because the Princess had hoped that the sea of glass and the hill of ice
were to be the worst of her difficulties. More than once she was tempted
to crack the nut, the last of the old woman's presents, but she
refrained, saying to herself she might yet be in greater need, and she
walked on and on, though nearly dead with cold and fatigue, till late in
the afternoon. Then at last, far before her still, she saw gleaming the
lights of a city, and, encouraged by the sight, she gathered her courage
together and pressed on, till, at the door of a little cottage at the
outskirts of the town, she sank down with fatigue. An old woman, with a
kind face, came out of the house and invited her to enter and rest.

"'You look sorely tired, my child,' she said. 'Have you travelled far?'

"'Ah yes!' replied the poor Princess, 'very far. I am nearly dead with
fatigue;' and indeed she looked very miserable. Her beautiful fair hair
was all tumbled and soiled, her poor little feet were scratched and
blistered, her black dress torn and draggled--she looked far more like a
beggar-maiden than like a princess. But yet, her pretty way of speaking
and gentle manners showed she was not what she seemed, and when she had
washed her face and combed her hair, the old woman looked at her with
admiration.

"'Tis a pity you have not a better dress,' she said, 'for then you could
have gone with me to see the rejoicings in the town for the marriage of
our Prince.'

"'Is your Prince to be married to-day?' asked the Princess.

"'No, not to-day--to-morrow,' said the old woman. 'But the strange thing
is that it is not yet known who is to be his bride. The Prince has only
lately returned to his home, for, for many years, he has been shut up by
a fairy spell in a beautiful palace in the north, and now that the spell
is broken and he is restored to his parents, they are anxious to see him
married. But he must still be under a spell of some kind, they say, for
though he has all that heart can wish, he is ever sad and silent, and as
if he were thinking of something far away. And he