before.

After going deep into the woods—in fact, he was at the very center and did not know it—the Prince stood still and listened.

A sound reached his ear which seemed like[Pg 31] the clatter of horses’ hoofs, and the Prince went in the direction from which the sound came.

[Pg 31]

All at once he found himself in front of the cave for which he had searched so long, and, looking in, he saw the old witch prancing about in the craziest manner.

She would climb the side of her cave with as much ease as she could walk across the floor, and then, giving a spring, she would walk on the top of the cave, her head hanging down toward the floor.

While the Prince was looking and wondering at this strange performance he noticed something shining on her feet, and when he looked closer, to his surprise he saw that the witch had on her feet silver horseshoes. Then he knew what his black horse had said was worth listening to—he was to get the shoes the old witch was wearing.

But then he thought: “She has on only two; I must have four. I wonder where are the other two.”

Just then a black cat came dancing into the cave, and on her hind feet the Prince saw the other two shoes he wanted. Such dancing and climbing the Prince had never seen as was[Pg 32] done by the old witch and her black cat. The silver shoes seemed to take them anywhere and they could do anything while they wore them.

[Pg 32]

After a while the witch and the black cat grew weary and took off the shoes, and the Prince saw them lift up a stone in the middle of the cave and drop the four silver horseshoes into a hole and then drop the stone again.

After the witch and the black cat were fast asleep in one corner of the cave the Prince crept in softly and lifted the stone. At the bottom of a deep hole he saw the horseshoes, and he was wondering how he could get them when he felt a push from behind and down he went into the hole, landing at the bottom where the shoes were.

The old witch had awakened and had pushed him in, and the Prince could hear her and the cat jumping about and laughing with glee that they had trapped him.

When the Prince found himself in the hole under the cave 

 Prev. P 17/97 next