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The colours changed and sprang, as though stirred and fed with fresh fuel; and down in the depths of the Wishing-Pot he saw the feet of his Beloved go by in twinkling green slippers. As soon as he saw that he began counting ten in great haste for the second wish. 'O to be inside the Wishing-Pot with her! was his thought now.
So he had heard tell of a certain Wishing-Pot that was hers in which people might see the thing they desired most, and into which for a fee she allowed lovers and other poor fools of fortune to look.
The king had promised that whoever could rouse her from her grief, should have the princess for his wife, and become heir to the throne; and when he heard that there was such a thing in the world as a Wishing-Pot, he thought that something might be done with it.
As he touched it all the secret wonders of the Wishing-Pot were opened and revealed to his gaze. Crowds and crowds of faces were what he most saw; everywhere that he turned he saw old friends and neighbours who, he thought, had been dead and gone, looking sadly, and shaking long sorrowful faces at him. 'You here too, Tulip? they seemed forever to be saying.
Surely, to be in the Wishing-Pot and out by the sound of the next Angelus became the shape of his wish. He shut his eyes, cried ten upon the venture, and was in the Wishing-Pot! The little green feet were trebling over the glass with a sound like running water; and he himself began running at full speed, shot off into the Wishing-Pot like a pellet from a pop-gun.
All the gratitude of the poor people he had saved was nothing to him in that great loss which had left him desolate. For his part he only took the Wishing-Pot up under his arm, and went sadly away home. But before long the noise of what he had done reached to the king's ears; and he sent for Tulip to appear before him and his Court.
When the old witch heard that she thought still to entrap him, and answered joyfully, 'Why, kind Sir, surely, kind Sir, if you like it you shall look again! Take another wish, and never mind about the money. So she said the spell once more which opened to him the wonders of the Wishing-Pot.
Away in the centre of its base stood a great opal knob, like the axle to a wheel round which he and the green feet kept circling. However much he wished and wished, the green feet still kept their distance, for now he was in the Wishing-Pot wishes availed him nothing.
One thing, however, was told against the virtues of this Wishing-Pot, that though many had had a sight of it, and their wishes revealed to them therein, others had gone and had never again returned to their homes, but had vanished altogether from men's sight, nor had any news ever been heard of them after.
Towards evening he came to the house of the witch and knocked at the door. 'Good mother, said he, when she opened to him, 'I have brought you the fee to buy myself a wish over the Wishing-Pot. 'Ay, surely, answered the crone, and drew him in. In one corner of the room stood a great crystal bowl.
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