A strong gray owl,
Like to thee.”
And he turned into a great, soft-feathered gray owl. It could not have been just those words,—because Katrina tried to use them so that she might turn into an owl herself, long afterward, just for fun.
The prince, now the gray owl, spread out one of his soft wings and took the princess under it; then he gathered the roll of tapestry under the other wing, and flew away, over the moat, toward his father’s castle.
“What about the gray squirrel?” asked Ben, excitedly flourishing a half-eaten camel.
On the flight to the home of the prince—said Miss Ruth—Katrina told the prince about the gray squirrel, whose little heart she could feel all the time beating against hers. “I have him with me, under my scarf,” she said. “He is afraid of you, I think,” she added, so low that the squirrel could not hear.
“The gray owls will do anything for me,” said the prince in a loud voice. “I will tell the greatest gray owl, the king of the forest, that from this time forth the owls and the squirrels must live peaceably together.”
Hearing this, the squirrel took courage and put his head out from the folds of Katrina’s blue scarf. “Thank you, Gray Owl,” he said gratefully. Then he slipped away, for they were near the home of the elf, and he was anxious to have his front teeth and his broken paw mended.
It happened that the neighbouring king, who had been for many years away at war, grew alarmed when his son, Prince Edward, was wounded; and so the king came hurrying home the very night of the day that Princess Katrina was rescued from the dungeon. When this good king heard the story of her imprisonment, he decided to set forth the next morning to punish her wicked uncle, Wulfred, whom he had never liked, but with whom he had lived in peace, up to this time.
That day, at noon, the false king made his way to the East Tower and lifted up the trap-door of the dungeon. “Katrina! are you ready to marry King Rupert?” he shouted down into the darkness.