"I can never sleep on that thing," said the Prince.
"Ho, ho!" cried the other; "Necessity can make any bed soft," and taking a bundle of straw, he threw it down on the bedstead.
IV
Sleep was sweeter to the Prince that night than it had ever been upon a bed of down, and when he rose the next morning the monster's features did not seem half so stern and forbidding as they had done at first. The inside of the cave, too, looked much more light and blithesome, though it was a dark and frowning place enough still, with hard rock all round, and nothing but one window to let in a little sunshine.
Necessity, however, did not intend to keep the Prince there, and as soon as he was up the giant said to him: "Come, trudge; you must quit my cave, and go on."
"You must open the door for me, then," said the Prince; "for the bolt is so high up I cannot reach it."
"You cannot get out by the door through which you came in," said the giant, "for it is the door of Idleness. There is but one way for you to get out, and that I will show you."
So, taking him by the hand, he led him on into a very dark part of the cave, which went a long way under ground, and then said to him: "You must now go on until you come to a great house, where you will find an old woman, who will give you your meals at least."
"But I want to return to my own palace of Prosperity," replied the Prince.