"Of that I am not sure," said Florimel, "but of this much I am, that right gladly would I be one of you, to work and toil while weary households sleep, to delight in harmless pranks and helpful deeds, and never be seen by mortal eye."
They looked at each other, evidently embarrassed by so bold a hint, and the Brownie Dude voiced the thought that was in all minds when he fervently remarked:
"But you are not a Brownie!" said the Chinaman to Florimel in a most decided tone. "How could you join the band? You don't look like a Brownie. What have you ever done?"
"Nothing, I fear," confessed Florimel. "It is not what I have not done, but what I hope to do, that makes me so presumptuous as to beg the honor to be one of you. And, if I were fortunate enough to be taken in by you, I would ever strive to be helpful, faithful, and true, like a Brownie."
These words, delivered with earnest, manly spirit, created their impression.
"It may be you have supernatural powers, as the Irishman remarked," said the Student Brownie doubtfully. "Have you ever tried to put them to a test?" Prince Florimel sighed.
What could he do to gain the confidence and esteem of these little people whom already he was beginning to love? How could he make them all his friends?
In his doubt and uncertainty his eye strayed to the bow in his hand. A sudden thought came to him. In this extremity it might be of aid.
But it had failed him once--would it fail him again?
Without a word he took an arrow from the quiver and placed it to the bow. The Brownies watched his every movement with the keenest interest.
He gazed about seeking some difficult target at which to aim. With their pop eyes the Brownies gazed where he did.
He saw the crescent moon hanging low in the deepening sky, like a hunter's horn, and pointed the arrow at it.
He pulled back the cord with all his strength, and to his great relief it held. The arrow whistled away in its swift flight, and was lost in the violet atmosphere.
But almost the next moment a great cry of surprise went up from all the Brownies. The arrow that Florimel had shot was sticking through the moon!
Watched by the admiring eyes of Dragonfel and his followers the Human Octopus wriggled and squirmed his way out of the enchanter's palace. And, whether he flew through the air, or swam through the waters, to Queen Titania's fairy kingdom, using his tentacles as propellers, is a matter for conjecture. But, at any rate, he got there with all tentacles. Whenever his suspicions were aroused, or there was the slightest doubt, he would hastily secrete himself among shrubbery or weeds, with which his mottled green sides proved a perfect match, so that as a whole he blended in admirably with the vegetation.