“Yes, indeed!” said Dick. “And, oh, dear Prince Humpty Dumpty, won’t you please let me try to help you?” “Oh, you’re welcome to _try_!” said Prince Humpty Dumpty, gloomily. “There’s not the slightest objection to your doing _that!_ Only I feel it my duty to warn you that you won’t like it in this place. It isn’t at all a pleasant city to live in, and the King is a most annoying person!” “Well,” said Dick, “I don’t expect to have much fun, you know; not what you’d _really_ call fun, that is! But I want to get into that city most awfully. Can you think of a way? The wall is pretty high to climb.” “Oh, it is very easy to get _in_!” declared the Egg, with dark meaning. “_Your_ trouble will be in getting out!” “I—I suppose so,” said Dick, and for a moment felt just a wee bit queer. Suppose that the Wicked King or this charming person called Grump should take it into his head to turn him into an egg,—or something even worse? But that cowardly thought only lasted for a moment, for Dick was a brave little boy, and aloud he cried cheerfully, “Well, tell me how to get _in_, anyway!” “Climb up the flowering vine,” said Humpty Dumpty; “repeat in each blossom, as you pass, the words, ‘Help me! Help me!’ That’s all.” Dick noticed that the outside of the wall was covered with pretty climbing flowers of a bright red colour. It looked like a morning-glory vine, only the blooms were scarlet. He put his foot into the tangle of green at the bottom, and cried boldly, “Help me! Help me!” into the first red cup that he saw. In a moment more he was climbing up as easily and merrily as though the delicate tendrils were a strong ladder. Once at the top he thanked the flowers politely, and shook Humpty Dumpty’s thin spidery hand. “Why can’t you get down that same way?” he inquired. “Looking like this?” said the unfortunate Egg. “Go home to my mother in an egg-shell? Never! Besides, I’ll never go until I can take the Princess with me. And besides all _that_, you just try to move me—that’s all!” Dick tried his best, and soon found that the great Egg was quite stationary. “Without the help of some sort of a spell I can’t move nor be moved,” said Humpty Dumpty, with sad calm. “You see why _I_ haven’t escaped, don’t you?” Dick felt more determined than ever to find the Princess and join forces with her. Surely, since she was in love with Humpty Dumpty, she must be able to suggest some way of setting him free. He jumped down into the Red City, and, waving a farewell to Humpty Dumpty, he ran away in search of the Princess. “The tallest tower in the city,” he repeated to himself, remembering the Sea Kobold. “That ought to be easy to find.”