Word reaches Princess Makemnoit that in spite of her lack of gravity, the princess without any gravity has found both happiness and love in the lake.  Princess Makemnoit goes to her old magic trunk and pulls out some powder and a shriveled up snake.  She revives the snake by way of the powder and some lake water, then she picks up the creature and goes down a dark tunnel to a cave underneath the lake. 

Muttering incantations, she applies the snake to the roof of the cave, to suck the water down out of the lake until the lake begins to leak into the cave.  At which point the snake drops and withers up, and Princess Makemnoit puts it in her pocket and makes a hasty retreat.  

When the princess without any gravity perceives that the lake is slowly shrinking, she swims home wordlessly and locks herself in her room, where she pines away much like the lake.  The prince can do nothing for her.  It seems the only thing that could bring back the princess would be to bring back the lake.

One day some children find a golden plate in one of the few remaining pools in the deepest part of the lake.  It reads that if the lake should ever dry up, the only way for it to be refilled is for a willing volunteer to allow himself to be placed in the hole where the water has run out, and be drowned as the lake fills.  If the kingdom can find no such willing volunteer, it would be best that such a kingdom should perish.

The plate is taken to the king, who sends word throughout the kingdom that a willing volunteer is needed to die in the lake.  By and by, this word reaches the prince.  He thinks of the princess, and goes to the king.  He volunteers to be the willing volunteer, on the condition that the princess keep him company until the water shall pass his eyes.