“Nonsense,” they said. “_You_ may sleep out in the open air, if you like; we mean to make ourselves comfortable here.”
So they all lay down under the shelter of the Mushroom, and Prince Comical slept in the open air. In the morning he wakened, feeling very well and hungry, and off he set to call his friends. But he might as well have called the Mushroom itself. There they all lay under its shade; and though some of them had their eyes open, not one of them could move. The Prince shook them, dragged them, shouted at them, and pulled their hair. But the more he shouted and dragged, the louder they snored; and the worst of it was, that he could not pull them out of the shadow of the Magic Mushroom. So there he had to leave them, sound asleep.
The Prince thought the Elves could help him perhaps, so he went and asked them how to waken his friends. They were all awake, and the Fairies were dressing the baby-Elves. But they only said, “Oh! its their fault for sleeping under a Mushroom. Anybody would know that is a stupid thing to do. Besides, we have no time to attend to them, as the sun will be up soon, and we must get these Babies dressed and be off before then.”
“Why, where are you going to?” said the Prince.
“Ah! nobody knows where we go to in the day time,” said the Elves.
“Well, what am I to do now?” said the Prince to the Black Beetle.
“_I_ don’t know where the Princess is,” said the Beetle; “but the Blue Bird is very wise, and _he_ may know. Now your best plan will be to steal two of the Blue Bird’s eggs, and not give them back till he tells you all he can.”
So off they set for the Blue Bird’s nest; and, to make a long story short, the Prince stole two of the eggs, and would not give them back, till the Bird promised to tell him all it knew. And the end of it was, that the Bird carried him to the Court of the Queen of Mushroom Land. She was sitting, in her Crown, on a Mushroom, and she looked very funny and mischievous.
Here you see the Prince, with his hat off, kissing the Queen’s hair, and asking for the Princess.
“Oh, _she’s_ quite safe,” said the Queen of Mushroom Land; “but what a funny boy you are. You are not _half_ handsome enough for the Princess Niente.”
The poor Prince blushed. “They call me Prince Comical,” said he; “I know I’m not half good enough!”