"Because we lack strength to perform the tasks your overseers demand," answered one of the women.
"Then you shall be whipped until your strength returns!" exclaimed the Queen, and turning to Inga, she commanded: "Get me the whip with the seven lashes."
As the boy left the room, wondering how he might manage to save the unhappy women from their undeserved punishment, he met a girl entering by the back way, who asked:
"Can you tell me where to find Her Majesty, Queen Cor?"
"She is in the chamber with the red dome, where green dragons are painted upon the walls," replied Inga; "but she is in an angry and ungracious mood to-day. Why do you wish to see her?"
"I have honey to sell," answered the girl, who was Zella, just come from the forest. "The Queen is very fond of my honey."
"You may go to her, if you so desire," said the boy, "but take care not to anger the cruel Queen, or she may do you a mischief."
"Why should she harm me, who brings her the honey she so dearly loves?" inquired the child innocently. "But I thank you for your warning; and I will try not to anger the Queen."
As Zella started to go, Inga's eyes suddenly fell upon her shoes and instantly he recognized them as his own. For only in Pingaree were shoes shaped in this manner: high at the heel and pointed at the toes.
"Stop!" he cried in an excited voice, and the girl obeyed, wonderingly. "Tell me," he continued, more gently, "where did you get those shoes?"
"My father brought them to me from Regos," she answered.
"From Regos!"
"Yes. Are they not pretty?" asked Zella, looking down at her feet to admire them. "One of them my father found by the palace wall, and the other on an ash-heap. So he brought them to me and they fit me perfectly."
By this time Inga was trembling with eager joy, which of course the girl could not understand.
"What is your name, little maid?" he asked.
"I am called Zella, and my father is Nikobob, the charcoal-burner."
"Zella is a pretty name. I am Inga, Prince of Pingaree," said he, "and the shoes you are now wearing, Zella, belong to me. They were not cast away, as your father supposed, but were lost. Will you let me have them again?"
Zella's eyes filled with tears.
"Must I give up my pretty shoes, then?" she asked. "They are the only ones I have ever owned."
Inga was sorry for the poor child, but he knew how important it was that he regain possession of the Magic Pearls. So he said, pleadingly:
"Please let me have them, Zella. See! I will exchange for them the shoes I now have on, which are newer and prettier than the others."
The girl hesitated. She wanted to please the boy Prince, yet she hated to exchange the shoes which her father had brought her as a present.
"If you will give me the shoes," continued the boy, anxiously, "I will promise to make you and your father and mother rich and prosperous. Indeed, I will promise to grant any favors you may ask of me," and he sat down upon the floor and drew off the shoes he was wearing and held them toward the girl.
"I'll see if they will fit me," said Zella, taking off her left shoe -- the one that contained the Pink Pearl -- and beginning to put on one of Inga's.
Just then Queen Cor, angry at being made to wait for her whip with the seven lashes, rushed into the room to find Inga. Seeing the boy sitting upon the floor beside Zella, the woman sprang toward him to beat him with her clenched fists; but Inga had now slipped on the shoe and the Queen's blows could not reach his body.
Then Cor espied the whip lying beside Inga and snatching it up she tried to lash him with it -- all to no avail.
While Zella sat horrified by this scene, the Prince, who realized he had no time to waste, reached out and pulled the right shoe from the girl's foot, quickly placing it upon his own. Then he stood up and, facing the furious but astonished Queen, said to her in a quiet voice:
"Madam, please give me that whip."
"I won't!" answered Cor. "I'm going to lash those Pingaree women with it."
The boy seized hold of the whip and with irresistible strength drew it from the Queen's hand.