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Rh with me; I think we shall be able to manage it. But now hold your tongue, for I want to go to rest.”

And now they all fell asleep.

Early in the morning the Prince awoke, and was not a little astonished to see that he was already far above the clouds. He was sitting on the back of the East Wind, who carefully held him fast; they were so high in the air that woods and fields, rivers and lakes, looked like a large colored map, stretched out below.

“Good morning,” said the East Wind; “you may, if you like, sleep a little longer; for as yet there is not much to be seen on the flat land beneath us, unless you would like to count the churches, which stand like little white dots down there on the green board.” They were the fields and meadows which he called a green board.

“It was unpolite of me to depart without taking leave of your mother and brothers,” said the Prince.

“If one sleeps, it is excusable,” answered the East Wind; and now they flew on still