"Go on! Find the book! Hunt it up. We are all anxious to become grasshoppers." And then Kwytoffle would set to work again, although big drops of perspiration were now streaming down his face.
Finally he pulled an old book from underneath the pillow of his bed, and crying, "Here it is!" carried it to the window.
He turned a few leaves of the book and then said:
"How unfortunate! The compound I require to change you into grasshoppers must be mixed on the first day of September; and as this is now the eighth day of September I must wait nearly a year before I can work the enchantment."
"How about the June-bugs?" asked Nerle.
"Oh! Ah! The June-bug mixture can only be made at the dark o' the moon," said the sorcerer, pretending to read, "and that is three weeks from now."
"Let me read it," said Prince Marvel, suddenly snatching the book from Kwytoffle's hands. Then he turned to the title-page and read:
"'Lives of Famous Thieves and Impostors.' Why, this is not a book of enchantments."
"That is what I suspected," said Terribus.
"No one but a sorcerer can read the enchantments in this book," declared Kwytoffle; but he hung his head with a sheepish look, for he knew his deception had been well understood.