gain!" he cried. "If this is the princess's dog, that boy stole
him. As for me, I found the poor creature, friendless and lost, and I took
pity on him."

"Why, then, did you stain his coat?" asked Gabriel.

The organ-grinder looked wildly up and down the street. For some reason he
felt that a silver coin would not affect the officer of the law to-day.

The gentleman-in-waiting pointed sternly at the culprit. "Take him away,"
he said to the officer. "Should this prove to be indeed the princess's dog,
he has committed treason."

And now the black carriage and spirited horses drove up. The three entered
it with the dog and were whirled away.

By noon it was rumored in that street that her royal highness, the princess
of the land, had walked through it, dressed like one of the common people.

Within the carriage the princess was weeping tears of joy above her pet.

"If it is you, Goldilocks, if it is you!" she kept repeating; but the dog
clung to the one who had recognized his topaz eyes in spite of everything.

"He is not fit, yet, for your highness to touch," said Gabriel, "but if you
will give me one hour, I will show him to you unchanged."

That afternoon there was rejoicing at the palace. All had felt the
influence of the princess's grief, for she was the idol of the king and
queen; and now, as Topaz capered again, a living sunbeam, through corridor
and garden, all had a word of praise for the peasant boy who had restored
him to his home.

At evening the princess received a message from Gabriel and ordered that he
be sent to her.

In a minute he entered, dressed in the shabby garments in which he had
leaped upon the coach step. In his hand he held a little rusty book, and
his clear eyes looked steadily at the princess, with the honest light which
had first made her listen to him.

"I come to say farewell, your highness," he said.

A line showed in her forehead. "What reward have they given you?"

"None, your highness."

"What have you in your hand?"

"The Book of Life."

"Come nearer and let me see it."

The ladies-in-waiting were, as usual, grouped near their mistress, and they
stared curiously at the peasant boy.

Only Topaz, who at his entrance had bounded from a satin cushion as golden
as his flossy coat, leaped upon him with every sign of affection.

Gabriel approached and handed the book to the princess.

She opened it and ran her eye over the gray pages. "I see no fiery
letters," she sai