Ogre:  Aye?  What’s that?

1st Prince:  Never mind.  You’ll anger him.  Maybe we can pull the feathers off these.  I have read of plucking a pigeon in our books. (They begin to pluck.)

2nd Prince:  It is very hard work.

3rd Prince:  I never knew feathers could stick in so hard.

4th Prince:  The more we pull out the more there would seem to be left.

5th Prince:  It will be a feather pie we will be getting in the end.

1st Prince:  (Throwing it down.) It is no use.  We might work at it to-day and to-morrow and be no nearer to a finish.

2nd Prince:  The pike might be better.

3rd Prince:  It has no feathers anyway.

4th Prince:  (Touching it.) It is raw and bleeding!

5th Prince:  We might roast it.

1st Prince:  The fire is black out.

2nd Prince:  I wonder what way can we kindle it?

3rd Prince:  Better ask him. (Points to Ogre.)

2nd Prince:  Please, sir, what way can we kindle the fire?

Ogre:  What!

4th Prince:  We would wish to light the fire.

Ogre:  Well, do so.

5th Prince:  If we had a box of matches....

Ogre:  Matches!  What are you talking about?  Matches won’t be invented for the next seven hundred years.

1st Prince:  What can we do then, we are starving with hunger.

Ogre:  Let ye blow a breath upon a coal under the ashes, and bring in small sticks from the wood.

2nd Prince:  (Blowing.) The ashes are choking me.

Ogre:  Very good.  Then you’ll put no delay on me, waiting till you’ll cook your supper.

3rd Prince:  Where can we get it then?

Ogre:  You’ll go without it, as you were too helpless to catch it, or to dress it, there’s no one will force you to eat it.

4th Prince:  If there is nothing for us to eat we had best pass the time in sleep.

5th Prince:  I am all covered with ashes and dirt. (To Ogre.) Please, where can I find a towel and a piece of soap?

Ogre:  Soap!  Is it bewitched ye are or demented in the head?  Did ever anyone hear of soap unless of a Saturday night?  Letting on to be as dainty and as useless as those young princes beyond, that are kept closed up in a tower of glass.  Come on now.  If there is no food that suits you, leave it.  It is time for us to get to work.

1st Prince:  But it is bed-time.

Ogre:  Your bed-time is the time when I have no more use for you.  Don’t you know I have made a plan?  What was it I sent you for, spying out that place of the young princes?  Wasn’t it to see where is it that treasure is kept, the golden-handled sword of Justice that is used by the Guardian when he turns Judge.