at
my sister?" he asked eagerly, "is she a nice little girl like Rasalu's
bride?"

Head-nurse laughed. "Nice enough I'll warrant, though I never saw her;
she has been since she was born, six years past, with her mother's
people; but so long as they send no fine ladies of nurses with her she
is welcome."

Little Prince Akbar stood up and stretched himself, and looked at
Head-nurse critically.

"Akka will welcome her, and Akka will tell you to be her nurse, and Akka
will swing her a great big swing."

So far as he was concerned _that_ settled the question; but up at the
Court there were endless questionings of heart. Prince Askurry was, as
ever, in two minds as to what he should do. Cruel brother Kumran, who
was Governor at Kabul, pressed his advice to stand firm, to send the
child to him, to let him show King Humayon that paid Persian troops
could not stand up against Indian ones. But Princess Sultanum had really
become fond of the little Heir-to-Empire, and felt sure that if they
only played their cards carefully the king, out of gratitude, would
consent to a betrothal between his son and her little daughter Amina.
And in the end the wife's counsel prevailed. So a better lodgment was
found for the royal children in an old palace surrounded by a lovely
garden, and here, just as the roses were beginning to bloom, little
Prince Akbar, dressed in his best, stood awaiting his sister's arrival.
He had insisted on having, like Rajah Rasalu, a coat of mail; so
Foster-mother had made him a tight-fitting corselet of silver tissue, in
which he looked very fine indeed, as he stood brandishing a wooden sword
covered with tin foil.

But when the red and gold bedecked camel did finally come up the
marble-paved pathway with silent soft elastic swing, little Akbar forgot
all about the part he was playing, and when he saw his sister, just ran
up to her and hugged her tight, and said breathlessly: "Ah! you are a
nice little girl!"

And a very nice little girl she was! Very small for her age, with a
little oval delicate face, big hazel eyes, and brownish hair all plaited
in tiny, tiny little plaits on her forehead.

And she was dressed just like a grown-up, with little ear-rings and
wristlets and anklets and necklaces and rings, with the dearest,
daintiest of flimsey gauze veils set with little silver stars wound all
about her! Never, said Head-nurse, had been such a darling little
marionette, and when the small person fell grace