cious ," said Prince Harweda . " Now I can have all the sweet odors I want without the trouble of going out into the garden for roses or lilies."
In the center of the room was a fountain of sparkling water which leaped up and fell back into its marble basin with a kind of rythmical sound that made a faint , dreamy music very pleasant to listen to .
On a table near at hand were various baskets of the most tempting pears and grapes and peaches , and near them were dishes of all kinds of sweetmeats . " Good," said the greedy young prince , " that is what I like best of all , " and therewith he fell to eating the fruit and sweetmeats as fast as he could cram them into his mouth . He ate so much he had a pain in his stomach , but strange to say , the table was just as full as when he began , for no sooner did he reach his hand out and take a soft mellow pear or a rich , juicy peach than another pear or peach took its place in the basket . The same thing occurred when he helped himself to chocolate drops or marsh- mallows or any of the other confectionery upon the table . For , of course , if the little palace was enchanted , everything in it was enchanted , also .
PRINCE HARWEDA. 37
When Prince Harweda had eaten until he could eat no more he threw himself down upon one of the couches and an invisible hand gently stroked his hair until he fell asleep . When he awoke he noticed for the first time the walls which , by the way , were really the strangest part of his new home . They had in them twelve long , checkered windows which reached from the ceiling to the floor . The spaces between the windows were filled in with mirrors exactly the same size as the windows , so that the whole room was walled in with windows and looking glasses . Through the three windows that looked to the north could be seen the far distant mountains Beautiful , as they were called , towering high above the surrounding country ; sometimes their snowcovered tops were pink or creamy yellow as they caught the rays of the sunrise ; sometimes they were dark purple or blue as they reflected the storm cloud . From the three windows that faced the south could be seen the great ocean , tossing and moving , constantly catching a thousand gleams of silver from the moonlight . Again and again , each little wave would be capped with white from its romp with the wind . Yet , as the huge mountains seemed to reach higher
than man could climb , so the vast ocean seemed to stretch out farther than any ship could possibly carry him . The eastern windows gave each morning a glorious vision of sky as the darkness of the night slowly melted into the still gray dawn , and that changed into a golden glow and that in turn became a tender pink . It was really the most beautiful as well as the most mysterious sight on earth if one watched it closely . The windows on the west looked out upon a great forest of tall fir trees and at the time of sunset the glorious colors of the sunset sky could be seen between the dark green branches .
But little Prince Harweda cared for none of these beautiful views . In fact , he scarcely glanced out of the windows at all , he was so taken up with the broad handsome mirrors , for in each of them he could see himself reflected and he was very fond of looking at himself in a looking glass . He was much pleased when he noticed that the mirrors were so arranged that each one not only reflected his whole body , head , arms , feet and all , but that it also reflected his image as seen in several of the other mirrors . He could thus see his front and back and each side , all at the same time . As he was a handsome boy he
