They wove a litter of sweet stems and into this they piled all the food of the princess’s tending. And when the queen would have had them send to the palace kitchen for supplies, the king, who was a wise fairy, would not permit it and commanded that all should be done as the prince wished. So when the garden was ravaged of its sweets, they all bore them away, and trooped to the cottage, and cast them on the threshold. And then they perched about the room, or hovered in the path of the moonlight to hear what should be said. And Prince Hesperus and Princess Romancia listened together upon the handle of the poor man’s spade. At sight of the gifts the wife sprang up joyfully and cried out to her husband, and the children wakened with happy shouts. “Here is food--food!” they cried. “Oh, it must be from the fairies.” The sick man looked and smiled. “Ay,” he said, “the Little Folk have remembered us. They have brought us rich store in return for my poor spadeful of earth.” Then the prince and princess and all the court understood that this poor man whom they had helped was that very day labourer who had come to the christening of the princess. And swift as a moonbeam--and not unlike one--Prince Hesperus darted from beside the princess and alighted on the man’s pillow. “Ah,” he cried, “can you not, then, tell me who it is who has the power to make one different from everybody else in the world?” In half delirium the day labourer heard the voice of the prince and caught the question. But he did not know that it was the voice of the prince, and he fancied it to be the voice of the whole world, as it were throbbing with the prince’s question. And he cried out loudly in answer:-- “No one has that power! No one is different! Those who seem different hold no truth. We are all alike, all of us that live!” Swiftly the prince turned to the king and the queen and the court. “The uninvited Human Being,” he cried, “did she say that the princess should _be_ different from all the world, or that she should merely _seem_ different?” The queen and the court could not remember, but the king, who was a wise fairy, instantly remembered. “She said that she should _seem_ different,” he said. Then the prince laughed out joyfully. “Ay,” he cried, “seem different, indeed! There are many and many who may do that. But this man speaks truth and out of his spadeful of earth we have learned it, _We are all alike, all of us who live!_” With that he grasped his tiny sword and flew to the side of the princess and lifted her hand in his. And with a swift, deft stroke he cut from her wrist the bracelet that was like a fetter, and he took her in his arms. “Ah, my princess,” he cried. “You have seemed different from us all only because you would have it so!”