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But Sabrinetta threw her arms round Elfin's neck, and held him as though she would never let him go. "Then it's all right, my dear, brave, precious Elfin," she cried, "for I am a Princess, and you shall be my Prince. Come along, Nurse don't wait to put on your bonnet. We'll go and be married this very moment." So they went, and the pigs came after, moving in stately blackness, two by two.
And so they were: There were only black cinders where his hands ought to have been. The Princess kissed them, and cried over them, and tore pieces of her silky-milky gown to tie them up with, and the two went back to the tower and told the nurse all about everything. And the pigs sat outside and waited. "He is the bravest man in the world," said Sabrinetta.
Then the dragon went back to the wood, because it was getting near his time to grow small for the night. So Sabrinetta went in and kissed her nurse and made her a cup of tea and explained what was going to happen, and that she had a heart of gold, so the dragon couldn't eat her; and the nurse saw that of course the Princess was quite safe, and kissed her and let her go.
"I will," said Elfin, putting his arms around her. "Now you are quite safe. What were you frightened of?" "The dragon," she said. "So it's gotten out of the silver bottle," said Elfin. "I hope it's eaten the Prince." "No," said Sabrinetta. "But why?" He told her of the mean trick that the Prince had played on him.
"Why, you my pretty, my dear," said Elfin, "and as for the Princess, his cousin forgive me, dearest heart, but when I asked for her I hadn't seen the real Princess, the only Princess, my Princess." "Do you mean me?" said Sabrinetta. "Who else?" he asked. "Yes, but five minutes ago you hadn't seen me!"
"And he promised me half his kingdom and the hand of his cousin the Princess," said Elfin. "Oh, dear, what a shame!" said Sabrinetta, trying to get out of his arms. "How dare he?" "What's the matter?" he asked, holding her tighter. "It was a shame, or at least I thought so. But now he may keep his kingdom, half and whole, if I may keep what I have." "What's that?" asked the Princess.
And, the minute he was married to the Princess, Elfin's hands got quite well. And the people, who were weary of Prince Tiresome and his hippopotamuses, hailed Sabrinetta and her husband as rightful Sovereigns of the land. Next morning the Prince and Princess went out to see if the dragon had been washed ashore.
Across the fields troops of children were going out to gather the may, and the sound of their laughter and singing came up to the top of the tower. "I do hope it wasn't a dragon," said Sabrinetta. The children went by twos and by threes and by tens and by twenties, and the red and blue and yellow and white of their frocks were scattered on the green of the field.
So Sabrinetta went up again to the top of her tower, and cried whenever she thought of the children and the fiery dragon. For she knew, of course, that the gates of the town were not dragonproof, and that the dragon could just walk in whenever he liked. The children ran straight to the palace, where the Prince was cracking his hunting whip down at the kennels, and told him what had happened.
Here another pig put its black nose in at the door, and then another and another, till the room was full of pigs, a surging mass of rounded blackness, pushing and struggling to get at Elfin, and grunting softly in the language of true affection. "There is one other," said the nurse. "The dear, affectionate beasts they all want to die for you." "What is the other cure?" said Sabrinetta anxiously.
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