Page:Lange - The Blue Fairy Book.djvu/45

 him, he mounted his horse and rode sadly away, letting the animal choose his own path.

So it happened that he came presently to a great plain, across which he rode all day long without seeing a single house, and horse and rider were quite terribly hungry, when, as the night fell, the Prince caught sight of a light, which seemed to shine from a cavern.

He rode up to it, and saw a little old woman, who appeared to be at least a hundred years old.

She put on her spectacles to look at Prince Hyacinth, but it was quite a long time before she could fix them securely because her nose was so very short.

The Prince and the Fairy (for that was who she was) had no sooner looked at one another than they went into fits of laughter, and cried at the same moment, ‘Oh, what a funny nose!’

‘Not so funny as your own,’ said Prince Hyacinth to the Fairy; ‘but, madam, I beg you to leave the consideration of our noses—such as they are—and to be good enough to give me something to eat, for I am starving, and so is my poor horse.’

‘With all my heart,’ said the Fairy. ‘Though your nose is so ridiculous you are, nevertheless, the son of my best friend. I loved your father as if he had been my brother. Now he had a very handsome nose!’

‘And pray what does mine lack?’ said the Prince.

‘Oh! it doesn’t lack anything,’ replied the Fairy. ‘On the contrary quite, there is only too much of it. But never mind, one may be a very worthy man though his nose is too long. I was telling