` Come home with me , ' he added ; ` you must be tired and hungry , and my daughter will have supper ready for us . ' The prince accepted gladly , and they went back to the palace , where the bald-headed king 's daughter , who was still more beautiful than the other princess , welcomed them at the door and led the way into a large hall and to a table covered with silver dishes . While they were eating , the bald-headed king asked the prince how he had happened to wander so far , and the young man told him all about it , and how he was seeking the Land of Immortality . ` You have found it already , ' answered the king , ` for , as I said , neither I nor my family can die till I have levelled this great mountain ; and that will take full eight hundred years longer . Stay here with us and marry my daughter . Eight hundred years is surely long enough to live . ' ` Oh , certainly , ' answered the prince ; ` but , all the same , I would rather go and seek the land where there is no death at all . ' So next morning he bade them farewell , though the princess begged him to stay with all her might ; and when she found that she could not persuade him she gave him as a remembrance a gold ring . This ring was still more useful than the box , because when one wished oneself at any place one was there directly , without even the trouble of flying to it through the air . The prince put it on his finger , and thanking her heartily , went his way . He walked on for some distance , and then he recollected the ring and thought he would try if the princess had spoken truly as to its powers . ' I wish I was at the end of the world , ' he said , shutting his eyes , and when he opened them he was standing in a street full of marble palaces . The men who passed him were tall and strong , and their clothes were magnificent . He stopped some of them and asked in all the twenty-seven languages he knew what was the name of the city , but no one answered him . Then his heart sank within him ; what should he do in this strange place if nobody could understand anything ? he said . Suddenly his eyes fell upon a man dressed after the fashion of his native country , and he ran up to him and spoke to him in his own tongue . ` What city is this , my friend ? ' he inquired . ` It is the capital city of the Blue Kingdom , ' replied the man , ` but the king himself is dead , and his daughter is now the ruler . '
With this news the prince was satisfied , and begged his countryman XXXXX show him the way to the young queen 's palace .
because for if in of than though till to with