e
outside world could be seen. However, it was a comfort not to have to
grope about in total darkness. Prince Harweda felt quite sure that
the cracks of light were wider, and on going up to one and putting his
eye close to it, as he would to a pinhole in a paper, he was glad to
find that he could tell the greenness of the grass from the blue of
the sky.

"Ah, my pretty bird, my pretty bird!" he cried joyfully, "I have had a
glimpse of the great beautiful outside world, and you shall have it
too."

With these words, he climbed up into a chair and, loosening the cage
from the golden chain by which it hung, he carried it carefully to the
nearest crack of light and placed it close to the narrow opening.
Again was heard the harsh, grating sound, and the walls moved a bit,
and the windows were now at least an inch wide. At this, the poor
prince clasped his hands with delight. He sat down near the bird-cage
and gazed out of the narrow opening. Never before had the trees looked
so tall and stately, or the white clouds floating through the sky so
lovely.

The next day, as he was carefully cleaning the bird's cage so that his
little friend might be more comfortable, the walls again creaked and
groaned and the mirrors grew narrower by just so many inches as the
windows widened. But Prince Harweda saw only the flood of sunshine
that poured in, and the beauty of the large landscape. He cared
nothing now for the stupid mirrors which could only reflect what was
placed before them. Each day he found something new and beautiful in
the view from the narrow windows. Now it was a squirrel frisking about
and running up some tall tree trunk so rapidly that Prince Harweda
could not follow it with his eyes; again it was a mother bird feeding
her young. By this time, the windows were a foot wide or more.

One day, as two white doves suddenly soared aloft in the blue sky, the
poor little bird, who had become the tenderly cared for comrade of the
young prince, gave a pitiful little trill. "Dear little fellow," cried
Harweda, "do you also long for your freedom? You shall at least be as
free as I am." So saying, he opened the cage door and the bird flew
out.

The prince laughed as he watched it flutter about from chair to table
and back to chair again. He was so occupied with the bird that he did
not notice that the walls had again shaken and that the windows were
now their full size, until the added light caused him to look around.
He turn