With each narrator it grew funnier, until the party screamed with laughter over the misfortunes of the ill-starred prince.
Hippy ended the tale by marrying the hero to a princess who was a golf fiend and who forced the poor prince to be her caddy.
"From the day of his marriage he chased golf balls," concluded Hippy, "and the habit became so firmly fixed with him that he even rose and chased them in his sleep.

He lost flesh at an alarming rate, and three months after his wedding day they laid him to rest in the quiet churchyard, with the touching epitaph over him, 'Things are not what they seem.'" Hippy buried his face in his handkerchief and sobbed audibly until David and Reddy pounced upon him and he was obliged to forego his lamentations and defend himself.
"It's time to move," said Tom Gray, consulting his watch.

"I don't believe we'd better go on through the wood.

We'll have to about face if we expect to get home before dark." So the start back was made, but their progress was slow.

A dozen things beguiled them from the path.