[Illustration:  Clever Peter and the Unlucky Bottle]

The next day he started off to the palace once more.  Rap! rap! rap! he knocked at the door.  Was the King at home?  Yes, the King was at home; would he come and sit in the parlor?

Presently the King came in, in dressing-gown and slippers.  “What! are you back again?” said he.

“Yes; I am back again,” said Peter.

“What do you want?” said the King.

“I want to marry the Princess,” said Peter.

“What have you brought this time?” said the King.

“I have brought another bottle,” said Peter.

Then the King rubbed his hands and was very polite indeed, and asked Peter in to breakfast, and Peter went.  So they all three sat down together, the King, the Princess, and Peter.

“My dear,” said the King, to the Princess, “the Lord Peter has brought another bottle with him.”  Thereat the Princess was very polite also.  Would Lord Peter let them see the bottle?  Oh yes!  Peter would do that:  so he drew it out of his pocket and sat it upon the table.

Perhaps they would like to have it opened.  Yes, that they would.  So
Peter opened the bottle.

Hui! what a hubbub there was!  The King hopped about till his slippers flew off, his dressing-gown fluttered like great wings, and his crown rolled off from his head and across the floor, like a quoit at the fair.  As for the Princess, she never danced in all of her life as she danced that morning.  They made such a noise that the soldiers of the Royal Guard came running in; but the two tall black men spared them no more than the King and the Princess.  Then came all of the Lords of the Council, and they likewise danced to the same music as the rest.

“Oh, Peter! dear Lord Peter! cork up your men again!” they all cried.

“Will you give me back my bottle?” said Peter.

“Yes! yes!” cried the King.

“Will you marry me?” said Peter.

“Yes! yes!” cried the Princess.

Then Peter said “brikket-ligg!” and the two tall men popped back into the bottle again.  So the King gave him back his other bottle, and the minister was called in and married him to the Princess.

After that he lived happily, and when the old King died he became King over all of the land.  As for the Princess, she was as good a wife as you ever saw, but Peter always kept the bottle near to him—­maybe that was the reason.

Ah me! if I could only take my eggs to such a
  market and get two such bottles for them! 
    What would I do with them?  It would
      take too long to tell you.

[Illustration:  Clever Peter opens the Unlucky Bottle for the King and Princess.]

[Illustration:  Ye Romantic Adventures of Three Tailors.  This is a full page poem showing the three tailors walking together, the three approaching the milk-maids, and the three walking away saddened.]