All orders executed with punctuality and dispatch , '' he added , quoting his own advertisement without thinking of it . On this the swordmaker took out and exhibited the Andrea Ferrara blade , which was exactly like the Sword of Sharpness . The upholsterer undid his parcel , and there was a Persian rug , which no one could tell from the magical carpet . The hatter was fumbling with the string of his parcel , when he suddenly remembered , what the king in his astonishment had not noticed , that he had a cap on himself . He pulled it off in a hurry , and the king at once saw that it was his Wishing Cap , and understood all about the affair . The hatter , in his absence , had tried on the Wishing Cap , and had wished that he himself and his friends were all at home and back again with their wares at the palace . And what he wished happened , of course , as was natural . In a moment the king saw how much talk this business would produce in the country , and he decided on the best way to stop it . Seizing the Wishing Cap , he put it on , wished all the tradesmen , including the shoemaker , back in the town at their shops , and also wished that none of them should remember anything about the whole affair . In a moment he was alone in the turret-room . As for the shopkeepers , they had a kind of idea that they had dreamed something odd ; but , as it went no further , of course they did not talk about it , and nobody was any the wiser . `` Owl that I am ! '' said King Prigio to himself . `` I might have better wished for a complete set of sham fairy things which would not work . It would have saved a great deal of trouble ; but I am so much out of the habit of using the cap , that I never thought of it . However , what I have got will do very well . '' 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 XXXXX touch them , but that might have seemed harsh .
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