caroled the Forgetful Poet, bounding through the door into the garden. Peer Haps smiled faintly, then remembering the monster, frowned and began drumming nervously on the arm of his chair. He did not even look up when the yellow hen hopped into the room, and, with a self-conscious cluck, laid a gold brick on the mantel. “What’s the matter?” asked the hen sulkily. “Everything!” groaned Peer Haps, straining his eyes for the first sign of Percy and the Princess. “Everything!” At that instant Percy rushed back. “The Princess is lost, gone, mislaid!” cried the Forgetful Poet, crossing his eyes in his extreme agitation. “You speak as if she were an egg,” clucked the yellow hen, but no one paid any attention to her and in a huff the spoiled creature flew out the window and dropped a gold brick on the head of the chief gardener. But no one, except the chief gardener, paid any attention to this either, for Peer Haps had raised such a clamor over the disappearance of his daughter that the whole castle was in an uproar. Indeed in five minutes more every woman, man and child in Perhaps City had joined in the search for the missing Princess. After they had searched high and low, and everywhere else for that matter, Percy suddenly bethought himself of the prophet and, rushing up the fifty steps to his tower, thumped hard upon the door. There was no answer. Percy flung the door open and there was no prophet. Abrog was gone too! In the face of this new calamity the dreadful prophecy about the monster was almost forgotten. Peer Haps sank down upon his throne and in spite of his sixty years and three hundred pounds wept like a baby. “He’s perfectly perfidious!” exclaimed Percy Vere, who was entirely out of breath from the steps. All the courtiers solemnly shook their heads. “A villain old and hideous, And perfectly perfidious, Has run off with our daughter. What shall be done to him, O Peer, This prophesighing profiteer Deserves both death and—and—” “Slaughter,” sobbed Peer Haps convulsively. Then mopping his face he sat up. “Someone must follow him at once and bring her back!” thundered the old monarch. “A thousand gold bricks to the man who brings her back. A thousand gold bricks and the Princess’ hand in marriage!” At this there was a great shuffling of feet and the young men of Perhaps City began to exchange uneasy glances. “Down the mountain?” asked Perix faintly. “Where else?” demanded Peer Haps, glaring angrily at the young nobleman whom he had intended for his daughter. “But we might be dashed to pieces. It is terribly unsafe,” stuttered Perix unhappily. All the other Happsies began to shake their heads and murmur sadly, “Unsafe, very unsafe!”