thing , " continued he as he filled its drinking cup . " This is all I have to give you . "
Just then he heard a harsh , grating sound , as of rusty bolts sliding with difficulty out of their sockets , and then faint rays of light not wider than a hair began to shine between the heavy plate mirrors . Prince Harweda was filled with joy . " Perhaps , perhaps , " said he softly, " I may yet see the light again . Ah , how beautiful the outside world would look to me now ! "
The next day he was so hungry that he began to eat one of the old withered apples , and as he bit it he thought of the bird , his fellow- prisoner . " You must be hungry , too , poor little thing , " said he as he divided his miserable food and put part of it into the bird's cage . Again came the harsh , grating sound , and the boy noticed that the cracks of light were growing larger . Still they were only cracks , nothing of the outside world could be seen . Still it was a comfort not to have to grope about in total darkness . Prince Harweda felt quite sure that the cracks of light were a little wider , and on going up to one and putting his eye close to it as he would to a pinhole in a paper , he was rejoiced to find that he could tell the greenness
PRINCE HARWEDA. 43
of the grass from the blue of the sky . Ah , my pretty bird , my pretty bird ! " he cried joyfully, " I have had a glimpse of the great beautiful outside world and you shall have it too . "
With these words he climbed up into a chair and loosening the cage from the golden chain by which it hung , he carried it carefully to the nearest crack of light and placed it close to the narrow opening . Again was heard the harsh , grating sound and the walls moved a bit and the windows were now at least an inch wide . At this the poor Prince clasped his hands with delight . He sat himself down near the bird cage and gazed out of the narrow opening . Never before had the trees looked so tall and stately , or the white clouds floating through the sky so lovely . The next day as he was carefully cleaning the bird's cage so that the little creature might be somewhat more comfortable , the walls again creaked and groaned and the mirrors grew narrower by just so many inches as the windows widened . But Prince Harweda saw only the flood of sunshine that poured in , and the added beauty of the larger landscape . He cared nothing whatever now for the stupid mirrors which could only reflect what was
placed before them . Each day he found something new and beautiful in the view from the narrow windows . Now it was a squirrel frisking about and running up some tall tree trunk so rapidly that Prince Harweda could not follow it with his eyes ; again it was a mother bird feeding her young . By this time the windows were a foot wide or more . day as two white doves suddenly soared aloft in the blue sky the poor little canary who had now become the tenderly cared for comrade of the young Prince , gave a pitiful little trill . " Dear little fellow, " cried Prince Harweda , " do you also long for your freedom ? You shall at least be as free as I am ." So saying, he opened the cage door and the bird flew out . The Prince laughed as he watched it flutter about from chair to table and back to chair again . He was so much occupied with the bird that he did not notice that the walls had again shaken and the windows were now their full size , until the added light caused him to look around . He turned and saw the room looking almost exactly as it did the day he entered it with so much pride because it was all his own . Now it seemed close and stuffy and he would gladly have exchanged it for the humblest home in
