ions, and got
true replies, as to where he was going and why. The hardy shoemaker
had a leather apron over his heart, but the heart in his broad breast
was honest and kind. Nono and Blackie were taken into his poor
cottage, and were free to sleep in its one room, where he and his wife
and two children, and the leather and the shoes to be mended, and much
more of a nondescript nature, were huddled together.

In the morning Nono was assured that one day's more walk would bring
him near to Stockholm. That was a trifle, the shoemaker said. He had
walked as far as that to church every Sunday, when he was young, and
lived up in the north, where the snow was not to be sneezed at, and the
night lasted almost all day, as he inconsistently expressed it.

As to visiting the princess, the shoemaker assured Nono that was sheer
madness. A boy like him would hardly dare to look any of the royal
family in the face, he was certain. He had never heard anything
particular about the princess, to be sure, but high folks didn't like
to be bothered. He advised Nono to show Blackie in the streets. That
might bring him a bit of money; and if worst came to worst there was
begging, not a bad business in Stockholm he had heard. Money was to be
made that way, no doubt, by such a chap as Nono, who had such a pretty
story to tell.

The shoemaker meant no harm, after his way of looking at life; but Nono
drew himself up straight, and said he believed he should see the
princess, he knew about her, and she was almost an angel. He might
have added, if he had spoken his thoughts, that he felt acquainted with
her after a fashion, and that, further, he hoped he should never come
to begging while he was able and willing to work. Nono could pay for
food and lodging for himself and Blackie without drawing on Jan's
coppers, and he set off full of courage. The shoemaker and his wife
had been kind, and he thanked them in his heart, as he had with his
lips, at parting, but he felt more and more grateful for his home in
the golden house. Nobody ever swore there, or tipped up a black bottle
with something strong in it. And how clean it was always, and how cosy!

The shoemaker's discouraging words had, however, been for Nono much
like the chilling mist that surrounded him when he started on his
second day's journey. He suddenly thought of "the lion and the bear"
and "this Philistine," and he was again convinced that there would be a
blessing on his