“‘Alas,’ replied the silver maid, again grave, ‘I cannot tell you. There is one thing alone that might cause them to return to your country, but it seems so impossible, that it will never happen, I am sure; and beside, I cannot tell you what it is.’ “‘O,’ replied the Prince earnestly, ‘I will find it out. No obstacle on earth will prove too hard, and you may be sure nothing will prevent my finding you, beautiful Princess.’ “‘I wish you success,’ sweetly replied the Silver Princess, and then, as she spoke these words, she blushed a vivid crimson. “She was so beautiful as she stood thus before him, blushing and smiling at the same time, that the Prince, falling on his knees, begged her to give him a sign by which he might hope to see her again and win her love. “She tore off a piece of her blue girdle, and dropping it on the earth, put her foot lightly upon it. ‘I leave you a flower,’ she said, ‘may it comfort you. Forget me not’; and saying this, she disappeared. “The Prince rubbed his eyes, for as she vanished he found himself again gazing at the feathery green palms across the big river, and looking around, found the yellow desert stretching in boundless sands to meet the horizon. The forest, the mountain, all had gone. But as he turned away from the great tawny hills in despair, he saw at his feet a tiny bit of blue. Stooping, he picked up the prettiest flower he had ever seen. It was as blue as the silver maid’s eyes, and as he held it to his lips he repeated her words, ‘Forget me not’; and since that day the little flower has always been called the forget-me-not. “Now, as Prince Asgard went home he pondered deeply on what he had seen, and gaining the consent of his father and the wise men of the country, he gathered together a great army and started out into the world in quest of the unknown princesses. No person believed he would succeed in finding the Rainbow Sisters or in bringing rain into the country. The story of the Rainbow Maidens was well known to the wise men, but they counted it a myth, a fairy tale, and they smiled among themselves when they heard that Prince Asgard believed it firmly. But they did not object to his trying: it would do no harm; and in the meanwhile they would still study and devise other methods. “Prince Asgard said good-bye to his father and the people, and at the head of a great army sparkling in gold and silver helmets and shields, he started on his journey. He was going to look for the Rainbow Sisters because his country needed rain, yet in his heart he knew it was because of love for the youngest and prettiest of those sisters that he was so eagerly searching.