myself. He says he's the fairy prince--insists on it, in fact,--and he has
it engraved on his visiting cards. But I have my doubts, only I don't dare
say so, for you see I work for him, run errands and the like of that; so
far be it from me to say he is not a fairy prince. I have, however, guided
you to him. Behold, the fairy prince!" and she called the last real
loudly, for the mud turtle was looking right at her. Then she added in a
whisper: "But I have my doubts."

"Hush! Oh hush, please!" begged Alice. "Of course he is a fairy prince!
They are always disguised like that--always appearing as something
different from what they really are, you know. Sometimes they are toads,
and sometimes frogs, and sometimes mud turtles, I suppose, though I never
heard of any of the last kind. But of course he is a fairy prince." Then
she bowed again, three times, and said: "Fairy prince, I salute thee."

"Fairy nothing!" grunted Jimmie. "He is no more a fairy than I am."

Then the mud turtle heard them talking, and he stuck his head farther out
of the shell, and he looked around with his snaky neck, and he came a
little more out of the hole, and said:

"Of course I am the fairy prince. Everybody knows that. I've been a fairy
prince for ever and ever so long." And then he sneezed, just to show that,
though he was a fairy prince, he was not proud.

"What shall I do, O fairy prince, to change you back into your own
rightful shape?" asked Alice. "Tell me, and I will do it at once. Dost
thou need three drops of magical water?"

"No," answered the mud turtle, "not any at all, thank you, so much. I am a