"Is there no other cure?" asked the Princess. Here another pig put its black nose in at the door, and then another and another, till the room was full of pigs, a surging mass of rounded blackness, pushing and struggling to get at Elfin, and grunting softly in the language of true affection. "There is one other," said the nurse. "The dear, affectionate beasts--they all want to die for you." "What is the other cure?" said Sabrinetta anxiously. "If a man is burnt by a dragon," said the nurse, "and a certain number of people are willing to die for him, it is enough if each should kiss the burn and wish it well in the depths of his loving heart." "The number! The number!" cried Sabrinetta. "Seventy-seven," said the nurse. "We have only seventy-five pigs," said the Princess, "and with me that's seventy-six!" "It must be seventy-seven--and I really can't die for him, so nothing can be done," said the nurse, sadly. "He must have cork hands." "I knew about the seventy-seven loving people," said Elfin. "But I never thought my dear pigs loved me so much as all this, and my dear too--and, of course, that only makes it more impossible. There's one other charm that cures dragon burns, though; but I'd rather be burnt black all over than marry anyone but you, my dear, my pretty." "Why, who must you marry to cure your dragon burns?" asked Sabrinetta. "A Princess. That's how St. George cured his burns." "There now! Think of that!" said the nurse. "And I never heard tell of that cure, old as I am." But Sabrinetta threw her arms round Elfin's neck, and held him as though she would never let him go. "Then it's all right, my dear, brave, precious Elfin," she cried, "for I am a Princess, and you shall be my Prince. Come along, Nurse--don't wait to put on your bonnet. We'll go and be married this very moment." So they went, and the pigs came after, moving in stately blackness, two by two. And, the minute he was married to the Princess, Elfin's hands got quite well. And the people, who were weary of Prince Tiresome and his hippopotamuses, hailed Sabrinetta and her husband as rightful Sovereigns of the land. [Illustration: "They saw a cloud of steam." _See page 135._] Next morning the Prince and Princess went out to see if the dragon had been washed ashore. They could see nothing of him; but when they looked out toward the whirlpool they saw a cloud of steam; and the fishermen reported that the water for miles around was hot enough to shave with! And as the water is hot there to this day, we may feel pretty sure that the fierceness of that dragon was such that all the waters of all the sea were not enough to cool him. The whirlpool is too strong for him to be able to get out of it, so there he spins around and around forever and ever, doing some useful work at last, and warming the water for poor fisher-folk to shave with. * * * * *