Page:Danish fairy and folk tales.djvu/55

 courtiers were at once ready to obey him, and soon the shabby rider and his horse were driven out of the prince's sight.

The old man was not, however, what he appeared to be, but a great and mighty conjurer, who did not always present himself in such a wretched shape. One day when the prince was walking alone in the woods, the old man suddenly stood before him and, touching him with his staff, said: "Now you try and see what it is to be a mare like mine, and that you shall be until an innocent young princess calls you her dearest friend." The moment he had uttered these words, the prince was transformed into just such an ugly little mare as the one which he could not bear to look at.

At the home of the prince every one was alarmed at his disappearance, and no one knew what had become of him. In the mean time he walked about in the woods as a common little mare, not at all satisfied with himself. He knew it would be useless for him to return to his father's palace, as no one would know or care for him. When he had been walking about in the forest for a couple of days, a little boy who gathered wood happened to see him, and approaching him he patted his back and talked kindly to him. The little mare followed the boy wherever he went, and finally they came to the boy's home just outside of the forest.

"Look, father," said the boy, "here I bring us a new horse instead of the old one which died yesterday.'