The sorcerer shook his head sadly. “Somebody always has to pay for these benefits,” said he, “and I’m afraid that when we plucked the feather we took away something we cannot replace. She cannot move nor speak. But I will set to work, and in time I will--” “Come!” said the young woman. “I will help her! We must take her home! Come at once!” The sorcerer and myself lifted the Princess between us and carried her down the street toward the cove. The village people and their children followed us, and stood in a throng on the beach as we got into a boat and hoisted a sail. “Good-bye!” shouted the people, and the sorcerer and myself waved our hands, none too cheerfully; and at that moment we heard a kind of bark from the water beside the boat, and a voice cried, “Sister!” It was the seal. The young woman leaned down toward him and cried, “Brother!” “Is everything all right now?” said the seal. “What are you going to do about me?” His sister raised the Princess and showed him the red mark on the Princess’s shoulder, and told him about the plucking of the stork’s feather. Then the seal’s sister said: “For once you have done a good deed, brother; and if you’ll do another--you know the promise!--two good deeds!--you will be free too. Go! and do not return until you have brought that which will cure the Princess. The milk of the White Walrus who lives in the Far-Alone Grotto on the Twelfth Ice Floe! Do you understand?” “It’s a pretty good trip,” said the seal, “and I’ll probably have to fight the walruses. But if you say so, why I suppose-- When do you think I’d better start?” “This instant!” cried his sister. “Off with you! And return to us at the King’s castle at Ventamere.” “Oh, very well,” said the seal, and dived. He came up again at the mouth of the cove, making off at a great rate for the open sea.... We reached the King’s castle at Ventamere in the evening, and pressed straightway into the Grand Refectory, where the King was at supper with his court. As we entered, the whole company sprang up, and my father ran toward me. _The King Beholds His Child and Is Grieved_ The sorcerer and myself, carrying the Princess, stood her on her feet and supported her thus between us, and the seal’s sister stood beside us. “My daughter!” cried the King, and rushing toward the Princess with outstretched arms, stopped in amazement as she remained between us as speechless and motionless as a statue. I whispered rapidly into my father’s ear, and the sorcerer, kneeling before the King, began to explain. The King paid no attention to him, but placed a hand upon his daughter’s arm and wept. “My poor child!” he said. “What shall we do now?” There was a movement at the door. A crowd of the castle people poured into the room, and parting, opened a lane for a young man, a stranger, who advanced rapidly from the door; a very fat young man, with a round, pink face and round, blue eyes, who wore hanging from his shoulders the skin and head of a seal.