You may be sure that it did not take the wise folk at the castle long to discover how great a simpleton had arrived. Courtiers, footmen, lackeys, turnspits even, were forever sending him off on ridiculous errands. Now he would be sent to find a white craw's feather or a spray of yellow bluebells; now he was ordered to look for a square wheel or a glass of dry water. Everybody laughed at him and made fun of him--that is, everybody except little Tilda, the kitchen-maid. When poor Bobo used to return from some wild-goose chase, tired out, mud-stained, and often enough wet to the skin, instead of laughing, little Tilda would find him a glass of warm milk, hang his coat by the fire to dry, and tell him not to be such a simpleton again. Thus, after a while, Bobo learned to ask Tilda's advice before going away on a wild-goose chase, and was in this way saved from many a jest. Tilda, the kitchen-maid, was as sweet and pretty as she was kind and good. She was said to be the daughter of an old crane who had come to the castle one day, asking for help. One pleasant mid-summer morning, when Bobo had been nearly a year at the castle, Princess Zenza overslept half an hour and did not come down to breakfast at the usual time. When she did get up, she found her court waiting for her in the castle gardens. As she came down the steps of the garden terrace, the Princess looked up at the castle clock to see how late she was, and said to her lady in waiting,-- "Dear me--why, I've lost half an hour this morning!" At these words, Bobo, who was in attendance, pricked up his ears and said,-- "Please, Your Highness, perhaps I can find it." At this idea of finding a lost half-hour, the Princess laughed, and found herself echoed by the company. "Shall we send Bobo in search of the lost half-hour?" said the Princess to the courtiers. "Yes! Yes!" cried the courtiers. "Bobo shall look for the lost half-hour." "I'll give him a horse," said one. "I'll give him my old hat," said another. "He can have an old sword I broke last week," said still another. And so, in less time than it takes to tell about it, poor simpleton Bobo was made ready for his journey. Before he left the castle, Bobo went down to the kitchen to say good-bye to Tilda. "What, off again?" said the little kitchen-maid. "Where are you going now?" "The Princess has lost a half-hour and I am going in search of it," said Bobo, proudly. And he told how the Princess herself had commanded him to seek the half-hour through the world, and promised to bring Tilda a splendid present when he returned. The good kitchen-maid said little, for she feared lest some misadventure overtake the poor simpleton; but when the chief cook was not looking, she tucked a fresh currant-bun into Bobo's pocket, and wished him the best of good fortune. So Bobo went to the castle gate, and mounted his horse, which stumbled and was blind in one eye.