"Ready!" and he and his sisters quacked as loudly as possible, or even
louder. The boy was just going to put the mud turtle into the basket, but
when he heard the quacking, coming right out of the bushes behind him, he
was so frightened that he dropped the fairy prince on the ground.

And the fairy prince crawled off as fast as he could, let me tell you.
Then the boy saw that it was the duck children who had frightened him, and
he laughed; but they didn't care, not a bit.

Then the boy said: "Oh, I guess there is no good fishing here. I'm going
to try a new place," so he walked away.

Then Alice went right up to the mud turtle and said: "O fairy prince, art
thou much hurt?"

"I am hurt considerable," said the mud turtle. "I am hurt in two ways. My
mouth hurts where the hook went in, and my feelings are hurt because the
boy didn't believe I was a fairy prince."

"Well, if you are a fairy prince," asked Jimmie, "why didn't you turn him
into an elephant or a lion and scare him, or why didn't you change him
into a bug or a mosquito, so he could fly away? Why didn't you do that,
eh?"

"There are several reasons," replied the mud turtle.

"Oh, wilt thou tell them to us?" asked Alice, romantically.

"Not now," replied the fairy prince, "but I will later. Return here
to-morrow and I will tell you," and he stretched first one wrinkly leg,