"There is nothing in the code of etiquette to prevent the Princess
approaching us before she is taken from her basket," he said bravely.
All the ladies applauded.

He threw the lasso very successfully. It went quite around the basket.
Then he drew it gently over the five yards. They all crowded around,
and looked into it.

_The Princess was not in the basket!_


II.

THE POP-CORN MAN.


That night the whole kingdom was in a turmoil. The Bee Guards were
called out, and patrolled the city, alarm-bells rung, signal fires
burned, and everybody was out with a lantern. They searched every inch
of the road to the park where the Bee Festival had been held, for it
did seem at first as if the Princess had possibly been spilled out of
the basket, although the nurses were confident that it was not so. So
they searched carefully, and the nurses were in the meantime placed in
custody. But nothing was found. The people held their lanterns low,
and looked under every bush, and even poked aside the grasses, but
they could not find the Princess on the road to the park.

Then a regular force of detectives was organized, and the search
continued day after day. Every house in the country was examined in