The fairy knew well enough by his face that he had seen Daylight, and when he woke up in the evening and started off again she gave him a strange little flask and told him to use it if ever he needed it.

This night the princess did not appear in the dell until midnight, at the very full of the moon.  But when she came, she was so lovely that she took the prince’s breath away.  Just think!—­she was dressed in a gown that looked as if it were made of fireflies’ wings, embroidered in gold.  She danced around and around, singing, swaying, and flitting like a beam of sunlight, till the prince grew quite dazzled.

But while he had been watching her, he had not noticed that the sky was growing dark and the wind was rising.  Suddenly there was a clap of thunder.  The princess danced on.  But another clap came louder, and then a sudden great flash of lightning that lit up the sky from end to end.  The prince couldn’t help shutting his eyes, but he opened them quickly to see if Daylight was hurt.  Alas, she was lying on the ground.  The prince ran to her, but she was already up again.

“Who are you?” she said.

“I thought,” stammered the prince, “you might be hurt.”

“There is nothing the matter.  Go away.”

The prince went sadly.

“Come back,” said the princess.  The prince came.  “I like you, you do as you are told.  Are you good?”

“Not so good as I should like to be,” said the prince.

“Then go and grow better,” said the princess.

The prince went, more sadly.

“Come back,” said the princess.  The prince came.  “I think you must be a prince,” she said.

“Why?” said the prince.

“Because you do as you are told, and you tell the truth.  Will you tell me what the sun looks like?”

“Why, everybody knows that,” said the prince.

“I am different from everybody,” said the princess,—­“I don’t know.”

“But,” said the prince, “do you not look when you wake up in the morning?”

“That’s just it,” said the princess, “I never do wake up in the morning.  I never can wake up until—­” Then the princess remembered that she was talking to a prince, and putting her hands over her face she walked swiftly away.  The prince followed her, but she turned and put up her hand to tell him not to.  And like the gentleman prince that he was, he obeyed her at once.

Now all this time, the wicked swamp fairy had not known a word about what was going on.  But now she found out, and she was furious, for fear that little Daylight should be delivered from her spell.  So she cast her spells to keep the prince from finding Daylight again.  Night after night the poor prince wandered and wandered, and never could find the little dell.  And when daytime came, of course, there was no princess to be seen.  Finally, at the time that the moon was almost gone, the swamp fairy stopped her spells, because she knew that by this time Daylight would be so changed and ugly that the prince would never know her if he did see her.  She said to herself with a wicked laugh:—­