Page:Lange - The Blue Fairy Book.djvu/53

 She wept and lamented, but all in vain, for go he must. Then she asked him if she could not go with him. But no, that could not be. ‘Can you tell me the way then, and I will seek you—that I may surely be allowed to do!”

‘Yes, you may do that,’ said he; ‘but there is no way thither. It lies east of the sun and west of the moon, and never would you find your way there.’



When she awoke in the morning both the Prince and the castle were gone, and she was lying on a small green patch in the midst of a dark, thick wood. By her side lay the self-same bundle of rags which she had brought with her from her own home. So when she had rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and wept till she was weary, she set out on her way, and thus she walked for many and many along day, until at last she came to a great mountain. Outside it an aged woman was sitting, playing with a golden apple. The girl asked her if she knew the way to the Prince who lived with his stepmother in the castle which lay east of the sun and