was enchanted and could not escape if he wanted to.

But it is impossible to be happy for long when one is bewitched; and, one day, Kit found himself in a part of the forest that was more horrible and more frightening than any dark passage that was ever invented on the way to any nursery. It was not only dark, but it was strangely silent as well; and a curious feeling of gloom and unhappiness suddenly crept over Kit. If it had been a nice sort of silence, the sort we find when we get away from the other boys and girls into a place where it is quiet enough to hear the real sounds of the air, Kit would still have been quite happy; but here there was nothing to be heard at all, not even the brushing of the leaves, nor the blooming of the flowers, nor the growing of the grass. But the most frightening thing of all was when he clapped his hands together and stamped as hard as he could on the ground, for not a sound did he make; and when he tried to speak, he found he could only whisper; and when he burst out laughing, he made no more noise than if he had been smiling. Still, he kept his wits about him, for, of course, there was the Princess to be rescued, and at last he thought of trying to whistle. At first he could not make a note sound in the stillness, but he went on trying until the wonderful tune he had learned long ago from the birds themselves began to echo once more through the silent forest.

He did not get an answer at once, for really nice birds cannot be expected to go out of their way to a place where there is no sunshine and the flowers cannot enter into conversation with them; but after a while a very fat blackbird, who certainly had impudence enough for anything, came hopping along from branch to branch until he landed on Kit's shoulder, and with him came sunshine and sound and merriment into the very heart of the melancholy forest, for none of these things are ever far off when a blackbird is near. Kit gave a shout of joy and hastened after the blackbird, who was hopping along the ground in front of him; and the next minute he found himself standing in a blaze of sunlight in front of a high stone wall. Beyond the wall he could see the tall towers of a great castle; but he did not trouble himself much about the other side of the wall, for on the top of it, with the sunshine pouring all over her, sat the most charming little girl he had ever seen.

She had lost one of her shoes, and there was the faintest sign of a scratch on her round, dimpled chin, and her long black hair flowed round her shoulders in a way that some people might have called untidy; but Kit was sure, directly he saw her, that she had come straight out of Fairyland, and he was too amazed even to make her a bow.

"Dear me! What are you doing here?" asked the girl, in a tone of great surprise.

Kit took a step nearer the wall, and pulled off his cap. Her voice reminded him that, although she belonged to Fairyland, she was still a little girl and would expect him to remember his manners. "I have come to rescue the Princess," he said. "Can you tell me where she is?"

"She lives in the castle over there," answered the girl. "What are you going to do when you have rescued her?"

"Well, I suppose I shall ask her to marry me," said Kit. "Do you think she will?"

"Ah," she replied gravely, "that depends on whether you have my permission. Tell me who you are, to begin with."

"I am Kit the Coward," he said simply; and he stared when she broke into the merriest peal of laughter imaginable.

"What nonsense!" she cried. "If you were a coward, you would never have got here at all."

"Is that true?" asked Kit eagerly. "Then do you think the Princess will marry me?"

The girl looked down at him for a moment, with her untidy little head on one side. Then she bent and held out her two hands to him. "I think, perhaps, the Princess will," she said softly. "If you will help me down from this enormous high wall, we will go and ask her."

So Kit lifted her down from the wall, which was quite an easy matter, for it was in reality no higher than he was and the little girl was certainly the lightest weight he had ever held in his arms. "What are you looking for?" he asked, when he had set her on the ground, for she was kneeling down and turning over the dry leaves in a most distressed manner.

"I am looking for my crown, of course," she said with a pout; "it tumbled off my head just before you came, and I was too frightened to jump all that long way to find it."

"Here it is," said Kit; and he picked up the little glittering crown and set it gently on the top of her beautiful, rumpled hair. Then he started back in surprise. "You are the Princess!" he shouted.

"Of course I am," laughed Princess Winsome, putting her hand in his; "I knew that, all the time! Shall we go home now?"

Kit did not reply immediately, for no one can do two things at once, and it took him quite a long time to kiss the small soft hand that lay in his own big one. And as for going home, when they did start they did not get very far; for it must not be forgotten that they were still in an enchanted forest, and it is easier to get into an enchanted forest than to get out of it again. However, as they had everything in the world to talk about, they would probably have been most annoyed if they had found their way instead of losing it; so they just went on losing it as happily as possible, until they could not walk another step because an immense giant was occupying the whole of the roadway. There he sat, smoking a great pipe that looked like a chimney-pot that wanted sweeping; and when the Princess saw him, she was so frightened that she hid herself behind Kit and peeped under his arm to see what was going to happen.

"Hullo!" said the giant, in a huge voice that made the grass stand on end with fright, just as it does after a hoar-frost; "what's this? You're running away with the Princess!"

"To be sure I am," said Kit; "and if you don't let me pass, I shall have to kill you."

"Oh, dear," sighed the giant, raising a wind that made the trees shiver for miles round. "They all say that, and there's no peace for a poor giant now-a-days. When I was a boy, the Prince was always put under a spell as well as the Princess. However, I suppose I must make an end of you, if you are determined to fight."

And he laid down his pipe and rose most unwillingly to his feet.

Kit laughed out loud with gladness, for at last he had found a good reason for a fight, and no one would be able to call him a coward any more. But before there was time to strike a single blow, the giant gave a loud howl of alarm, took to his heels, and in another moment was completely out of sight. Kit turned in amazement to his little Princess; and then he saw what had frightened the giant, for all the animals of the forest, all the lions and the tigers and the bears and the wolves, stood there in rows, waiting to help him. So there is no doubt that that giant would have been killed by somebody if he had not run away.

"Isn't it wonderful?" said the little Princess, in a whisper.

But Kit covered his face with his hands. "It is no use," he said in a disappointed tone; "the other boys will never believe that I am not a coward."

Princess Winsome came and pulled his hands away and laughed softly. "I think you are the bravest boy in the world," she said.

"Of course he is!" chuckled a voice somewhere near. "How stupid some people are, to be sure!" And there sat the Weird Witch under a tree, all in her pink and green gown, with her great eyes brimful of fun and nonsense. And as the boy and girl stood