"Dandelion?" repeated the Prince. "That doesn't mean anything." [Illustration] The man nodded his head in a knowing way, but said nothing. He was a strange-looking individual, with clothing which was made of all sorts of odds and ends pieced together; while so lean and wizened was he that it made the Prince hungry only to look at him. "Do you mean that dandelion down makes better beds?" asked Vance, whose wits were being sharpened by his travels. The other nodded. "Then why in the world couldn't you say so? You are not dumb." "Breath," returned the little thin man, briefly. He moved from the bunch of thistles which he had stripped to the next, turning as he did so and carefully picking up his footprints to use over again and save himself the trouble of making new ones. "You are certainly the most economical man I ever saw," declared the Prince, irritably. "I wouldn't be so mean with my old footprints; nobody else would bother to pick them up. And as for breath, you might spare a little more of that; it doesn't cost anything." The man paid no especial attention to these rather uncivil remarks, but went on in his work with great diligence. "Do talk a little!" Vance said, becoming more and more impatient every moment. "At least you can tell me how to find the Crushed Strawberry Wizard?" "Why?" asked the man, with the first show of interest he had displayed. "I'm going in search of him." "Wouldn't," was the little man's reply. "Why not?" "Dreadfully wearing on shoes," the other answered. Then he stopped and collected the breath which he had used in this speech,--for him a very long one,--and went on steadily picking thistledown. "But I must find him," Vance persisted, vexed anew at this reply; "where does he live?" "Don't know," said the thistledown-gatherer, shortly. Vance arose from the stone with an impatient flounce, and took up his box so suddenly that the teeth of all the Court chattered. "Well," he said snappishly, "you are certainly the stingiest man I ever saw. You can't even give away a civil word." "Oh, no!" returned the old man, with an expression of great astonishment. "Never give anything away. What will you give for your dolls?" Now, this question might sound like pure idiocy to some people; but funnily enough it came into the head of Vance that when he had been teasing those twelve models of propriety, his sisters, a few days before, and had made their blue bead-like eyes swim with tears by taking away their playthings, he had used just those very same words to them. He hung his head a little; but still, determined to put a bold face on the matter, he said,-- "Don't talk nonsense! Tell me the way to the Crushed Strawberry Wizard's this minute!" But, to his surprise, where the queer old man had stood there was only a seedy black raven, very battered and ragged, but with a remarkable pair of glittering red eyes. VI