full half-hour before he got out into the open air, and found himself
floating merrily over the top of the tower.

Hitherto, in all his journeys, he had never let himself go out of sight
of home, for the dreary building, after all, was home--he remembered
no other; but now he felt sick of the very look of his tower, with its
round smooth walls and level battlements.

"Off we go!" cried he, when the cloak stirred itself with a slight, slow
motion, as if waiting his orders. "Anywhere anywhere, so that I am away
from here, and out into the world."

As he spoke, the cloak, as if seized suddenly with a new idea, bounded
forward and went skimming through the air, faster than the very fastest
railway train.

"Gee-up! gee-up!" cried Prince Dolor in great excitement. "This is as
good as riding a race."

And he patted the cloak as if it had been a horse--that is, in the way
he supposed horses ought to be patted--and tossed his head back to meet
the fresh breeze, and pulled his coat collar up and his hat down as he
felt the wind grow keener and colder--colder than anything he had ever
known.

"What does it matter, though?" said he. "I'm a boy, and boys ought not
to mind anything."

Still, for all his good-will, by and by, he began to shiver exceedingly;
also, he had come away without his dinner, and he grew frightfully