and implored him to confide his trouble to her. If it was
ambition to be king, his father would gladly resign the cares of
the crown, and suffer him to reign in his stead; or, if it was
love, everything should be sacrificed to get for him the wife he
desired, even if she were daughter of a king with whom the
country was at war at present!

‘Madam,' replied the prince, whose weakness would hardly allow
him to speak, ‘do not think me so unnatural as to wish to deprive
my father of his crown. As long as he lives I shall remain the
most faithful of his subjects! And as to the princesses you speak
of, I have seen none that I should care for as a wife, though I
would always obey your wishes, whatever it might cost me.'

‘Ah! my son,' cried she, ‘we will do anything in the world to
save your life ----and ours too, for if you die, we shall die
also.'

‘Well, then,' replied the prince, ‘I will tell you the only thing
that will cure me ---a cake made by the hand of "Donkey Skin." ‘

‘Donkey Skin?' exclaimed the queen, who thought her son had gone
mad; ‘and who or what is that?'

‘Madam,' answered one of the attendants present, who had been
with the prince at the farm, "'Donkey Skin" is, next to the wolf,
the most disgusting creature on the face of the earth. She is a
girl who wears a black, greasy skin, and lives at your farmer's
as hen-wife.'