"You may sleep where you are," the woman said as he finished; and she closed the window with a slam, leaving it impossible to say where it had been. "Oh, by the way," she cried, a moment later, sticking her head through the bark of the tree, in a way that looked very uncomfortable indeed, "about those boundaries, you know, and the Crushed Strawberry Wizard, I was going to say--But, no; on the whole, it's no matter." And once more she disappeared, not again to be seen. "I must say," muttered Prince Vance, "strange things happen to me all the time." And curling himself up on the moss, he fell fast asleep from weariness. VII The morning sun shining into his eyes awakened him; and after looking about carefully to assure himself that there was nothing to be had to eat in that place, Vance shouldered his box and trudged along the river's bank. It was a beautiful bright morning; the birds were singing, the flowers were opening to the light, and had it not been for a constantly growing hunger, the young traveller might have enjoyed his walk greatly. As it was, he soon became so hungry that he could think of nothing but eating. He went on, however, until about noon, before he found any food; then to his great joy he came upon a fine tree hanging full of ripe peaches, rosy and plump as a baby's cheek. "Now for a feast!" he said eagerly to himself, as he put down his box and prepared to gather a hatful of the delicious fruit. Just then he stumbled over something, and looking down saw a man lying on the grass with his eyes shut and his mouth open. "Hallo!" exclaimed the Prince. "Who are you? Are you awake or asleep?" "Awake," answered the man, without stirring. "Why don't you get up then?" asked Vance. "Are you ill?" "No," replied the man, briefly. And indeed he was as stout a fellow as one would meet in a summer's day. "Then what are you doing?" demanded the Prince, who had lost all patience and who thought that the other might at least take the trouble to open his eyes to see who was talking to him. "Waiting," the man said, opening his eyes at last. "Waiting for what?" "For a peach to drop into my mouth." "One has fallen beside your cheek," said Vance, "and another right in your hand." [Illustration] "But I want it in my mouth," sighed the man on the ground. "I am so dreadfully hungry." "So dreadfully lazy, you mean," exclaimed Vance, quite out of patience; and he began to eat the luscious fruit. "You must certainly be the laziest man in the world." "If you think that," was the drawling answer, "you ought to see my cousin Loto, who lives down the river a mile as the crow flies." "He'll have to be lazy, indeed, to beat you," the Prince said, as he once more shouldered his box. "Do you know where the Crushed Strawberry Wizard lives?" "I know," returned the man, "but I'm too lazy to tell." "It wouldn't take you any longer to tell than to say you can't tell," cried Vance, hotly.