spit, being slowly turned round between the hewn trunks of two fir
trees. An oldish woman, tall and strong enough to be a man dressed up,
sat by the fire throwing on logs from time to time.

'Come in, by all means!' she said; 'sit down by the fire so that your
clothes may dry!'

'There is a shocking draught here,' said the Prince, as he sat down on
the ground.

'It will be worse than this when my sons come home!' said the woman.
'You are in the cavern of the winds; my sons are the four winds of the
world! Do you understand?'

'Who are your sons?' asked the Prince.

'Well that's not so easy to answer when the question is stupidly put,'
said the woman. 'My sons do as they like; they are playing rounders now
with the clouds up there in the great hall,' and she pointed up into the
sky.

'Oh indeed!' said the Prince. 'You seem to speak very harshly, and you
are not so gentle as the women I generally see about me!'

'Oh, I daresay they have nothing else to do! I have to be harsh if I am
to keep my boys under control! But I can do it, although they are a
stiff-necked lot! Do you see those four sacks hanging on the wall? They
are just as frightened of them as you used to be of the cane behind the
looking-glass. I can double the boys up, I can tell you, and then they
have to go into the bag; we don't stand upon ceremony, and there they