The boy started at the sudden inquiry, “What is it you want, good mother?” he asked after a little hesitation.
“Nay,” replied the Fairy, “I have expressed no want. I desire to learn what it is that you want?”
“Oh! I want some good Fairy to carry me over hill and dale to the court of King Katzekopf.”
“Are you quite sure of that?” asked the lame woman.
“Aye marry, am I,” replied the boy, laughing. “Will you show me the way to Fairy-land?”
“May be I will, and may be I won’t,” answered the Fairy. “I must first see what metal you are made of. Will you go with me to court?”
“I shouldn’t like your pace, mother,” said Witikind. “I should never get there, if I kept by the side of your crutches.”
“Don’t be too sure of that,” rejoined the beggar. “There’s many a worse hobbyhorse than my crutch. Can you ride, sir boy?”
“To be sure I can,” replied Witikind, “I were fit for little, if I could not.”
“Then let me see how you can sit this nag of mine,” said the Fairy; and seating herself sideways on one crutch, she waved the other; when, in an instant, that on which she was seated became a living cockatrice, which mounted up into the air with its burden, and, after three or four circumvolutions, descended on the platform, to which allusion has been made, and then stood still; while the Lady Abracadabra, no longer disguised as a beggar-woman, but wearing her usual Fairy garb, dismounted and approached the astonished Countess and her terrified children.