"I have lost it," brazenly exclaimed the Prince of the Seven Golden Cows, and then he seized the purse full of money that Teenchy Duck held in her bill, and went on his way.
The poor Puddle Duck was so astonished at this that she could scarcely stand on her feet.
"Well, well!" she exclaimed, "that rich lord has kept all for himself and given me nothing. May he be destroyed by a pestilence!"
Teenchy Duck at once ran to her master, and told him what had happened. When her master learned the value of what Teenchy Duck had found, and the trick that had been played on her by the Prince of the Seven Golden Cows, he went into a violent rage.
"Why, you big simpleton!" he exclaimed, "you find money and you do not bring it to us? You give it to a big lord, who did not lose it, when we poor people need it, so much. Go out of this house instantly, and don't dare to come back until you have brought me the purse of gold!"
Unfortunate Teenchy Duck trembled in all her limbs, and made herself small and humble; but she found voice to say:
"You are right, my master! I go at once to find the Prince of the Seven Golden Cows."
But once out of doors the poor Puddle Duck thought to herself sorrowfully: "How and where can I find the Prince who was so mean as to steal the beautiful money?"
Teenchy Duck was so bewildered that she began to strike her head against the rocks in despair. Suddenly an idea came into her mind. She would follow his tracks, and the marks that his walking-stick made in the ground until she came to the castle of the Prince of the Seven Golden Cows.
No sooner thought than done. Teenchy Duck went waddling down the road in the direction taken by the miserly Prince, crying, with all her might: