Question or discussion, and the two little girls began at once to inquire into

How he came to be where he was, and how he came to be so unroyally clad,

And whither he was bound, and all about his affairs. It was a mighty relief to

Him to pour out his troubles where they would not be scoffed at or doubted; so

He told his tale with feeling, forgetting even his hunger for the time; and it was

Received with the deepest and tenderest sympathy by the gentle little maids.

But when he got down to his latest experiences and they learned how long he

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Had been without food, they cut him short and hurried him away to the

Farmhouse to find a breakfast for him.

The king was cheerful and happy now, and said to himself, 'When I am come

To mine own again, I will always honor little children, remembering how that

These trusted me and believed in me in my time of trouble; whilst they that

Were older, and thought themselves wiser, mocked at me and held me for a

liar.'

The children's mother received the king kindly, and was full of pity; for his

Forlorn condition and apparently crazed intellect touched her womanly heart.

She was a widow, and rather poor; consequently she had seen trouble enough

To enable her to feel for the unfortunate. She imagined that the demented boy

Had wandered away from his friends or keepers; so she tried to find out