“I wonder how it feels to be a bear,” thought he to himself when he had walked a little way; and he took out the tip from the breast of his coat and wished hard that he might become a bear. The next moment his body stretched out and thick black fur covered him all over. As before, his hands were changed into paws, but when he tried to switch his tail he found to his disgust that it would not go any distance. “Why it is hardly worth calling a tail!” said he. For the rest of the day he remained a bear and continued his journey, but as evening came on the bear-skin, which had been so useful when plunging through brambles in the forest, felt rather heavy, and he wished himself a boy again. He was too much exhausted to take the trouble of cutting any fern or seeking for moss, but just threw himself down under a tree, when exactly above his head he heard a great buzzing as a bumble-bee alighted on a honeysuckle branch. “What are you doing here?” asked the bee in a cross voice; “at your age you ought to be safe at home.” “I am running away from the mermaid,” replied the boy; but the bee, like the lion and the bear, was one of those people who never listen to the answers to their questions, and only said: “I am hungry. Give me something to eat.” The boy took his last loaf and flask out of his knapsack and laid them on the ground, and they had supper together. “Well, now I am going to sleep,” observed the bee when the last crumb was gone, “but as you are not very big I can make room for you beside me,” and he curled up his wings, and tucked in his legs, and he and the prince both slept soundly till morning. Then the bee got up and carefully brushed every scrap of dust off his velvet coat and buzzed loudly in the boy’s ear to waken him. “Take a single hair from one of my wings,” said he, “and if you are in danger just wish yourself a bee and you will become one. One good turn deserves another, so farewell, and thank you for your supper.” And the bee departed after the boy had pulled out the hair and wrapped it carefully in a leaf. “It must feel quite different to be a bee from what it does to be a lion or bear,” thought the boy to himself when he had walked for an hour or two. “I dare say I should get on a great deal faster,” so he pulled out his hair and wished himself a bee. In a moment the strangest thing happened to him. All his limbs seemed to draw together, and his body to become very short and round; his head grew quite tiny, and instead of his white skin he was covered with the richest, softest velvet. Better than all, he had two lovely gauze wings which carried him the whole day without getting tired. Late in the afternoon the boy fancied he saw a vast heap of stones a long way off, and he flew straight towards it. But when he reached the gates he saw that it was really a great town, so he wished himself back in his own shape and entered the city.