MEANWHILE, Princess Hilda and Prince Frank were sitting on a heap of rubbish, crying as if their hearts would break, and the cat stood beside them wiping its great yellow eyes with its paw and looking very sorrowful.

“Crying will do no good, however,” said the cat at last; “we must try to get poor little Henry back again.”

“Oh, where is our fairy aunt?” cried Princess Hilda and Prince Frank. “She will tell us how to find him.”

“You will not see your fairy aunt,” replied Tom, “until you have taken Henry out of the gray tower, where he is standing in the thousand and first corner with his face to the wall and his hands behind his back.”

“But how are we to do it,” said Princess Hilda and Prince Frank, beginning to cry again, “without our fairy aunt to help us?”

“Listen to me,” replied the cat, “and do what I tell you, and all may yet be well. But first take hold of my tail, and follow me out of this desert to the borders of the great forest; there we can lay our plans without being disturbed.”

With these words, Tom arose and held his tail straight out like the handle of a saucepan; the two children took hold of it, off they all went, and in less time than it takes to tell it, they were on the borders of the great forest, at the foot of an immensely tall pine-tree. The cat made Princess Hilda and Prince Frank sit down on the moss that covered the ground, and sat down in front of them with his tail curled round his toes.

“The first thing to be done,” said he, “is to get the Golden Ivy-seed and the Diamond Water-drop. After that, the rest is easy.”

“But where are the Golden Ivy-seed and the Diamond Water-drop to be found?” asked the two children.

“One of you will have to go down to the kingdom of the Gnomes, in the center of the earth, to find out where the Golden Ivy-seed is,” replied the cat “and up to the kingdom of the Air-Spirits, above the clouds, to find out where the Diamond Water-drop is.”

“But how are we to get up to the Air-Spirits, or down to the Gnomes?” asked the children, disconsolately.

“I may be able to help you about that,” answered the cat. “But while one of you is gone, the other must stay here and mind the magic fire which I shall kindle before we start; for if the fire goes out, Rumpty-Dudget will take the burnt logs and blacken Henry’s face all over with them, and then we should never be able to get him back. Do you two children run about and pick up all the dried sticks you can find, and pile them up in a heap, while I get the touch-wood ready.”

In a very few minutes, a large heap of fagots had been gathered together, as high as the top of Princess Hilda’s head. Meanwhile, the cat had drawn a large circle on the ground with the tip of his tail, and in the center of the circle was the heap of fagots. It had now become quite dark, but the cat’s eyes burned as brightly as if two yellow lamps had been set in his head.

“Come inside the circle, children,” said he, “while I light the touch-wood.”

In they came accordingly, and the cat put the touch-wood on the ground and sat down in front of it with his nose resting against it, and stared at it with his flaming yellow eyes and by and by it began to smoke and smolder, and at last it caught fire and burned famously.

“That will do nicely,” said the cat; “now put some sticks upon it.” So this was done, and the fire was fairly started, and burned blue, red and yellow.

“And now there is no time to be lost,” said the cat. “Prince Frank, you will stay beside this fire and keep it burning, until I come back with Princess Hilda from the kingdoms of the Gnomes and Air-Spirits. Remember, that if you let it go out, all will be lost; nevertheless, you must on no account go outside the circle to gather more fagots, if those that are already here get used up. You may, perhaps, be tempted to do otherwise; but if you yield to the temptation, all will go wrong; and the only way your brother Henry can be saved will be for you to get into the fire yourself, in place of the fagots.”

Though Prince Frank did not much like the idea of being left alone in the woods all night, still, since it was for his brother’s sake, he consented; but he made up his mind to be very careful not to use up the fagots too fast, or to go outside the ring. So Princess Hilda and Tom the cat bade him farewell, and then the cat stretched out his tail as straight as the handle of a saucepan. Princess Hilda took hold of it, and away! right up the tall pine-tree they went, and were out of sight in the twinkling of an eye.

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