“Oh, where is our fairy aunt?” cried Princess Hilda and Prince Frank. “She will tell us how to find him.”
“You will not see your fairy aunt,” replied Tom, “until you have taken Henry out of the gray tower, where he is standing in the thousand and first corner with his face to the wall and his hands behind his back.”
“But how are we to do it,” said Princess Hilda and Prince Frank, beginning to cry again, “without our fairy aunt to help us?”
“Listen to me,” replied the cat, “and do what I tell you, and all may yet be well. But first take hold of my tail, and follow me out of this desert to the borders of the great forest; there we can lay our plans without being disturbed.”
With these words, Tom arose and held his tail straight out like the handle of a saucepan; the two children took hold of it, off they all went, and in less time than it takes to tell it, they were on the borders of the great forest, at the foot of an immensely tall pine-tree. The cat made Princess Hilda and Prince Frank sit down on the moss that covered the ground, and sat down in front of them with his tail curled round his toes.
“THE TWO CHILDREN TOOK HOLD OF IT, AND OFF THEY ALL WENT”
“The first thing to be done,” said he, “is to get the Golden Ivy-seed and the Diamond Water-drop. After that, the rest is easy.”
“But where are the Golden Ivy-seed and the Diamond Water-drop to be found?” asked the two children.
“One of you will have to go down to the kingdom of the Gnomes, in the center of the earth, to find out where the Golden Ivy-seed is,” replied the cat “and up to the kingdom of the Air-Spirits, above the clouds, to find out where the Diamond Water-drop is.”