So the Queen sent secretly for the farmer, and suggested to him a means whereby he might get back his horse. The farmer listened and acted on her advice. With a net thrown about him, he went up and down the town, and round and round the outside of the Palace, crying, "Ho! ho! the fisherman! Who wants to catch fish with me?" Up and down the town he went with this cry, and round and round the Palace, stopping always before the King's own windows. At last the King could stand it no longer, and he bawled out, "Be off with you! Would you have us catching fish in the streets? You're a fine fisher, you country bumpkin! And it's a fine catch you'll get in my gutters."

"And you're a fine fisher of horses!" retorted the farmer. "And a fine haul you made in my meadow!"

And the King, who liked a good answer, laughed heartily, and ordered his servants to give back the horse to its toaster. Nevertheless, he was very angry; and when the man had gone, he called for his wife and said, "I know who put the fellow up to that trick. It was you. You have no care for my interests. You like country bumpkins best. Be off with you! Out of my house!"

Then Queen. Pina answered, "Very well, your Majesty, I'll go back again to my home. They will be glad to see me, all the country bumpkins. But it is hardly fair I should go away empty-handed. When you married me you said, 'Whatever is most precious in this palace belongs to you!'"

"Oh, take whatever you like! Only, be off with you!"

Now, Pina had some fairy gifts; and by means of one of these she threw her husband into a deep sleep. And when he was fast asleep she ordered a great coach to draw up before the palace door, and had him carried into it. Then she got in herself, and they drove away to her father's cottage. When at last he woke he found Pina sitting by him. But where were they? It seemed a very small place, and the light was dim; and his couch uncommonly hard.

"Where am I? Where am I?" he cried out in some alarm. "What has happened?"

"Only what you ordered," replied Pina. You sent me away, you remember. But you told me I might take with me the most precious thing in the palace. So I did. I brought you!"

Then the King laughed, and laughed again, till the cottage rafters rang. And he laughed all the way back in the coach. Of course, Queen Pina sat by him, laughing too. They never parted any more. And their reign was a long and a merry one.