Страница 447 из 626

Next morning when the princess arose she went to her father, and

told him that she had had a very strange dream. 'I was carried

through the streets with the rapidity of lightning,' said she,

'and taken into a soldier's room, and I had to wait upon him like

a servant, sweep his room, clean his boots, and do all kinds of

menial work. It was only a dream, and yet I am just as tired as

if I really had done everything.' 'The dream may have been true,'

said the king. 'I will give you a piece of advice. Fill your

pocket full of peas, and make a small hole in the pocket, and

then if you are carried away again, they will fall out and leave

a track in the streets.' But unseen by the king, the manikin was

standing beside him when he said that, and heard all. At night

when the sleeping princess was again carried through the streets,

some peas certainly did fall out of her pocket, but they made no

track, for the crafty manikin had just before scattered peas in

every street there was.