The Wishing Man wanted to be off, but the prince and princess asked him so eagerly to sing again that he finally consented to sing what he had sung before,—“Just by way of encore,” he said:
“I have wishbones on my fingers,
I have myst’ry in my eyes;
My clothes are lined with four-leaf clovers
And are stained with magic dyes.
“I have pockets full of rabbits’ feet,
And amulets and charms;
Just for luck I pick up horseshoes,
I have tattoos on my arms.
“I know a world of wonders,
And if you would believe,
I have fortunes in my wallet
And surprises up my sleeve.
“I come from a distant country,
Away up near the sky,
From the golden palace, Overhead,
In the land of Wonder Why.
“I’m the best of friends of children,
And I’ll help you if I can;
Now tell me what your wishes are,
For I’m the Wishing Man.”
And then he was gone.
It may be that it was a very long, tiresome journey to the palace; it may be that the cold had made the prince and princess very sleepy; it may have been due to something else. At any rate, when the servants came at ten o’clock and opened the door softly, the prince and princess lay fast asleep before the fire, which was burning very low, and the clock was tick-tock, tick-tocking very loud indeed.
What the prince and princess told the king in the morning, how long they were pages of the Angel of Blessings, how many people they carried blessings to, I cannot tell; I never heard. But this I know: that night, and for many days after, the servants and the teachers said that it seemed to them the prince and princess were kinder than usual, and the king and the queen not long after were heard to say they never in their lives had seen the prince and princess so loving and so happy.