Then the Princess left the cave and wandered down to the sea-shore. All that night she spent sitting on a rock that jutted out into the sea, watching the wild sky and the moon coming and going behind the clouds. The sea dashed up around her, and the wind blew, but she did not fear them, and when the sun rose the waters were still and the wind fell. A skylark rose from the fields and flew straight up to heaven, singing as though his heart would burst with pure joy.
"Surely that bird is happy," said the Princess to herself; and she called it in its own tongue.
"Why do you sing?" she asked.
"I sing because I am so happy," answered the lark.
"And why are you so happy?" asked the Princess.
"So happy?" said the lark. "God is so good. The sky is so blue, and the fields are so green. Is that not enough to make me happy?"
"Teach me, then, that I may be happy too," said Princess Fernanda.
"I cannot," said the lark; "I don't know how to teach;" and then he rose, singing, into the blue overhead, and Princess Fernanda sighed and turned back towards the palace.
Outside her door she met her little lap-dog, who barked and jumped for joy on seeing her.