“When I heard this I ran with all speed to the Castle. I had the right to enter at any time in the day,” he explained to the children, “so I ran right up to the ball-room, for I heard voices in loud discord coming from there!” “There I found a strange looking woman, with long straggly hair and a long nose, shaking her walking stick at the Princess’ Ladies in Waiting. “What is going on here?” I cried as I ran up to the group of ladies. “‘This strange creature claims to be the Princess and says that a Magician has transformed her into an old woman,’ the Ladies in Waiting answered. ‘We do not believe she is telling us the truth!’ “I could not believe it myself,” added the Dancing Master, “but still I have heard of stranger things, so I said to the Ladies in Waiting, ‘Perhaps she really is the Princess!’ “At first I could not get any of the ladies to agree with me,” the Little Man went on, “and really, to tell the truth, I could not blame them much for as the days went by the queer creature who said she had been changed from our own Beautiful Princess into this ugly woman did such disagreeable things to the Ladies in Waiting they all moved from the Castle, and would not have anything to do with her. After a while I discovered that the old woman was not the Princess. “You must know that by this time no one ever went near the old woman, who lived alone and kept herself shut up in a room away in the top of the Castle tower. One night, as I was passing the Castle, I heard a window creak far above my head, and looking up I saw the old woman, seated in an umbrella, fly out of the tower window and go speeding away out of sight. Then I knew that she was a witch! “I ran home as fast as I could and told Mrs. Tiptoe what I had seen. “We were so excited at first we couldn’t think of a thing to say. We just looked at each other. “Mrs. Tiptoe was one of the Ladies in Waiting to the Princess!” the Dancing Master explained to Gran’ma. “Finally my good wife cried, ‘I knew it all along! It is not our beautiful Princess. Who knows but that this wicked Witch has taken the Princess and hidden her away somewhere!’ “‘I will go see this Witch and talk to her myself!’ Mrs. Tiptoe cried an instant later and I could not dissuade her. Although she might have known it would lead to trouble, she put on her bonnet and ran to the Castle! “Of course I followed. We went up the palace steps together and right in at the door. The Palace was a sight!” exclaimed the Little Man. “No one ever went there and there were papers and cobwebs all over the place. No one cleaned any of the rooms, for no one would have anything to do with that disagreeable old creature! So we went through the Palace until we came to the rooms the old hag used for her living quarters, and there we found proof that it indeed was not our beloved Princess!”