All day long he walked, and walked; but at nightfall he had not found his way out of the wood, so he lay down to rest till the moon should rise and light his path.

When he woke the moon was glorious; it was three days from the full, and bright as silver.  By its light he saw what he thought to be the edge of the wood, and he hastened toward it.  But when he came to it, it was only an open space, surrounded with trees.  It was so very lovely, in the white moonlight, that the prince stood a minute to look.  And as he looked, something white moved out of the trees on the far side of the open space.  It was something slim and white, that swayed in the dim light like a young birch.

“It must be a moon fairy,” thought the prince; and he stepped into the shadow.

The moon fairy came nearer and nearer, dancing and swaying in the moonlight.  And as she came, she began to sing a soft, gay little song.

But when she was quite close, the prince saw that she was not a fairy after all, but a real human maiden,—­the loveliest maiden he had ever seen.  Her hair was like yellow corn, and her smile made all the place merry.  Her white gown fluttered as she danced, and her little song sounded like a bird note.

The prince watched her till she danced out of sight, and then until she once more came toward him; and she seemed so like a moonbeam herself, as she lifted her face to the sky, that he was almost afraid to breathe.  He had never seen anything so lovely.  By the time she had danced twice round the circle, he could think of nothing in the world except the hope of finding out who she was, and staying near her.

But while he was waiting for her to appear the third time, his weariness overcame him, and he fell asleep.  And when he awoke, it was broad day, and the beautiful maiden had vanished.

He hunted about, hoping to find where she lived, and on the other side of the glade he came upon a lovely little house, covered with moss and climbing roses.  He thought she must live there, so he went round to the kitchen door and asked the kind cook for a drink of water, and while he was drinking it he asked who lived there.  She told him it was the house of the Princess Daylight, but she told him nothing else about her, because she was not allowed to talk about her mistress.  But she gave him a very good meal and told him other things.

He did not go back to the little old woman who had been so kind to him first, but wandered all day in the wood, waiting for the moontime.  Again he waited at the edge of the dell, and when the white moon was high in the heavens, once more he saw the glimmering in the distance, and once more the lovely maiden floated toward him.  He knew her name was the Princess Daylight, but this time she seemed to him much lovelier than before.  She was all in blue like the blue of the sky in summer. (She really was more lovely, you know, because the moon was almost at the full.) All night he watched her, quite forgetting that he ought not to be doing it, till she disappeared on the opposite side of the glade.  Then, very tired, he found his way to the little old woman’s house, had breakfast with her, and fell fast asleep in the bed she gave him.