At dinner he could eat nothing that was not sliced as thin as a
shaving, and so sad was his predicament that the King determined to ask
the Wise Donkey what could be done to relieve his unfortunate son.

After hearing all the particulars of the accident, the Donkey said:
"Blow him up."

"I did blow him up, for being so careless," replied the King; "but it
didn't make him any thicker."

"What I mean," explained the Donkey, "is to bore a hole in the top of
his head, and blow air into him until he resumes his natural shape.
Then, if he takes care of himself, he soon will be all right again."

So the King returned to the palace and bored a hole in Fiddlecumdoo's
head, and then pumped him full of air with a bicycle pump. When he had
filled out into his natural shape they put a plug in the hole, and
stopped it up; and after that Fiddlecumdoo could walk around as well as
before his accident.

His only danger now was that he might get punctured; and, indeed, his
friends found him one day lying in the garden, all flattened out again,
the Prince having pricked his finger on a rose-bush and thereby allowed
his air to escape. But they inflated him once again, and afterward he
was more careful of himself.

Fiddlecumdoo had such a horror of being flat that, if his father ever
wished to make him behave, he threatened to stick a pin into him, and
that always had the desired effect.