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“To your work!” she cried.

And Dorothy began to spin; but she was trembling from head to foot, and every now and then she glanced at the princess on the hearth.

The daughters, in their best gowns, sat with their mother around the hearth until nine o’clock; then Dorothy was ordered to leave her wheel, the cottage was locked up, and everybody went to bed.

Dorothy’s bed was a little bundle of straw up in the garret under the eaves. She was very tired when she lay down, but did not dare to sleep, for she remembered her promise to mend the eldest daughter’s apron. So she waited until the house was still; then she arose and crept softly down-stairs.

The fire on the hearth was still burning, and there sat the princess, and the sweet hum of her singing filled the room. But Dorothy could not understand a word of the song, because it was in the Persian language. She stood in the doorway and trembled; she did not know what to do. It seemed to her that she must be losing her wits to see a princess where every one else saw a cat. Still she could not doubt the evidence of her own eyes. Finally she advanced a little way and courtesied very low. The princess stopped singing at once. She arose in a stately fashion, and fastened her bright eyes upon Dorothy.

“So you know me?” said she.

Dorothy courtesied again.

“Are you positive that I am not a cat?”

Dorothy courtesied.

“Well, I am not a cat,” said the princess. “I am a true princess from Persia, travelling incognita. You are the first person who has pierced my disguise. You must have very extraordinary eyes. Aren’t you hungry?”

Dorothy courtesied.

“Come here and eat the stew,” ordered the princess, in a commanding tone. “Meantime I will cook my own supper.”

With that the princess gave a graceful leap across the floor; her gray velvet robe fluttered like a gray wing. Dorothy saw a little mouse scud before her; then in an instant the princess had him! But the moment the princess lifted the mouse, he became a gray pigeon, all dressed for cooking.

The princess sat down on the hearth and put the pigeon on the coals to broil.

“You had better eat your stew,” said she; “I won’t offer you any of this pigeon, because you could not help suspecting it was mouse.”

So Dorothy timidly took up the stew, and began to eat it; she was in reality nearly starved.

“Now,” said the Persian princess, when she had finished, “you had better do that mending, while I finish cooking and eat my own supper.”

Dorothy obeyed. By the time the apron was neatly mended, the princess had finished cooking and eaten the pigeon. “Now, I wish to talk a little to you,” said she. “I feel as if you deserved my confidence since you have penetrated my disguise. I am a Persian princess, as I said before, and I am travelling incognita to see the world and improve my mind, and also to rescue my brother, who is a Maltese prince and enchanted. My brother, when very young, went on his travels, was shipwrecked on the coast of Malta, and became a prince of that island. But he had enemies, and was enchanted. He is now a Maltese cat. I disguise myself as a cat in order to find him more readily. Now, for what do you most wish?”

Dorothy courtesied; she was really too impressed to speak.

“Answer,” said the princess, imperiously.

“I–want,” stammered Dorothy, “to–take my grandmother out of–the almshouse, and have her sit at the window in the sun in a cushioned chair and knit a silk stocking all day.”

“Anything else?”

“I should like to–have her wear a bombazine gown and a–white lace cap with–lilac ribbons.”

“You are a good girl,” said the princess. “Now, listen. I see that you are not very pleasantly situated here, and I will teach you a way to escape. Take your hood off that peg over there, and come out with me. I want to find my portmanteau that I left under the hedge, a little way down the road.”