Then , putting on the Cap of Darkness , that nobody might see him , he carried all the real fairy articles away , except the Seven-league Boots , to his own room , where he locked them up , leaving in their place the sham Wishing Cap , the sham Cap of Darkness , the sham Sword of Sharpness , and the carpet which was not a magic carpet at all . His idea was , of course , that Ricardo would start on an expedition confiding in his fairy things , and he would find that they did not act . Then he would be left to his own cleverness and courage to get him out of the scrape . That would teach him , thought the king , to depend on himself , and to set a proper value on cleverness and learning , and minding his book . Of course he might have locked the things up , and forbidden Ricardo to touch them , but that might have seemed harsh . And , as you may easily imagine , with all the powers at his command , the king fancied he could easily rescue Ricardo from any very serious danger at the hands of giants or magicians or monsters . He only wanted to give him a fright or two , and make him respect the judgment of older and wiser people than himself . CHAPTER IV . Two Lectures . -LCB- The Prince with the telescope : p64.jpg -RCB- For several days Prince Ricardo minded his books , and , according to his tutors , made considerable progress in polite learning . Perhaps he ought not to be praised too highly for this , because , in fact , he saw no means of distinguishing himself by adventures just at that time . Every morning he would climb the turret and sweep the horizon , and even much beyond the horizon , with the ivory spy-glass . But look as he would , he saw no monsters preying on human-kind anywhere , nor princesses in distress . To be sure he saw plenty of poor people in distress , and , being a good-hearted , though careless , lad , Dick would occasionally fly off with the Purse of Fortunatus in his pocket , and give them as much money as they needed -- it cost him nothing . But this was not the kind of adventure which he enjoyed . Dragons for his money ! One day the Princess Jaqueline took a curious plan of showing Ricardo how little interest , after all , there is in performing the most wonderful exploits without any real difficulty or danger . They were drifting before a light breeze on a hill lake ; Ricardo was fishing , and Jaqueline was sculling a stroke now and then , just to keep the boat right with the wind . Ricardo had very bad sport , when suddenly the trout began to rise all over the lake . Dick got excited , and stumbled about the boat from stern to bow , tripping over Jaqueline 's feet , and nearly upsetting the vessel in his hurry to throw his flies over every trout he saw feeding .
-LCB- Drifting in a light breeze : p66.jpg -RCB- But , as too often occurs , they were taking one particular fly which was on the water , and would XXXXX at nothing else .
cost distinguishing fancied locked look saw sculling set showing thought