Then the prince climbed up the rose bush with his naked sword in his teeth, and he took the princess's hair in his hand about a yard from her head and said, "Jump!"
The princess jumped, and screamed, for there she was hanging from the hook by a yard and a half of her bright hair. The prince tightened his gasp of the hair and drew his sword across it.
Then he let her down gently by her hair till her feet were on the grass, and jumped down after her. They stayed talking in the garden till all the shadows had crept under their proper trees and the sundial said it was breakfast time.
Then they went in to breakfast, and all the court crowded round to wonder and admire. For the princess's hair had not grown.
"How did you do it?" asked the king, shaking Florizel warmly by the hand.
"The simplest thing in the world," said Florizel, modestly. "You have always cut the hair off the princess. I just cut the princess off the hair."
"You are a young man of sound of judgement," said the king, embracing him.
The princess kissed her prince a hunder times, and the very next day they were married. Everyone remarked on the beauty of the bride, and it was noticed that her hair was quite short — only five feet five and a quarter inches long — just down to her pretty ankles.
THE END
