explain her conduct to the prince, of whose presence she seemed no
longer conscious. He withdrew to his cave, in great perplexity and
distress.

Next day she made many observations, which, alas! strengthened her
fears. She saw that the banks were too dry; and that the grass on
the shore, and the trailing plants on the rocks, were withering
away. She caused marks to be made along the borders, and examined
them, day after day, in all directions of the wind; till at last
the horrible idea became a certain fact--that the surface of the
lake was slowly sinking.

The poor princess nearly went out of the little mind she had. It
was awful to her to see the lake, which she loved more than any
living thing, lie dying before her eyes. It sank away, slowly
vanishing. The tops of rocks that had never been seen till now,
began to appear far down in the clear water. Before long they were
dry in the sun. It was fearful to think of the mud that would soon
lie there baking and festering, full of lovely creatures dying, and
ugly creatures coming to life, like the unmaking of a world. And
how hot the sun would be without any lake! She could not bear to
swim in it any more, and began to pine away. Her life seemed bound
up with it; and ever as the lake sank, she pined. People said she
would not live an hour after the lake was gone.

But she never cried.

A Proclamation was made to all the kingdom, that whosoever should
discover the cause of the lake's decrease, would be rewarded after
a princely fashion. Hum-Drum and Kopy-Keck applied themselves to