He did not get an answer at once, for really nice birds cannot be expected to go out of their way to a place where there is no sunshine and the flowers cannot enter into conversation with them; but after a while a very fat blackbird, who certainly had impudence enough for anything, came hopping along from branch to branch until he landed on Kit's shoulder, and with him came sunshine and sound and merriment into the very heart of the melancholy forest, for none of these things are ever far off when a blackbird is near. Kit gave a shout of joy and hastened after the blackbird, who was hopping along the ground in front of him; and the next minute he found himself standing in a blaze of sunlight in front of a high stone wall. Beyond the wall he could see the tall towers of a great castle; but he did not trouble himself much about the other side of the wall, for on the top of it, with the sunshine pouring all over her, sat the most charming little girl he had ever seen.
She had lost one of her shoes, and there was the faintest sign of a scratch on her round, dimpled chin, and her long black hair flowed round her shoulders in a way that some people might have called untidy; but Kit was sure, directly he saw her, that she had come straight out of Fairyland, and he was too amazed even to make her a bow.
"Dear me! What are you doing here?" asked the girl, in a tone of great surprise.
Kit took a step nearer the wall, and pulled off his cap. Her voice reminded him that, although she belonged to Fairyland, she was still a little girl and would expect him to remember his manners. "I have come to rescue the Princess," he said. "Can you tell me where she is?"
"She lives in the castle over there," answered the girl. "What are you going to do when you have rescued her?"
"Well, I suppose I shall ask her to marry me," said Kit. "Do you think she will?"
"Ah," she replied gravely, "that depends on whether you have my permission. Tell me who you are, to begin with."
"I am Kit the Coward," he said simply; and he stared when she broke into the merriest peal of laughter imaginable.