sery rhyme; but a shudder went through the whole of them
notwithstanding. The baby, on the contrary, began to laugh and crow;
while the nurse gave a start and a smothered cry, for, she thought she
was struck with paralysis: she could not feel the baby in her arms. But
she clasped it tight and said nothing.

The mischief was done.

III

_She Can't Be Ours!_

Her atrocious aunt had deprived the child of all her gravity. If you ask
me how this was effected, I answer, "In the easiest way in the world.
She had only to destroy gravitation." For the princess was a
philosopher, and knew all the ins and outs of the laws of gravitation as
well as the ins and outs of her boot-lace. And being a witch as well,
she could abrogate those laws in a moment; or at least so clog their
wheels and rust their bearings that they would not work at all. But we
have more to do with what followed than with how it was done.

The first awkwardness that resulted from this unhappy privation was,
that the moment the nurse began to float the baby up and down, she flew
from her arms towards the ceiling. Happily, the resistance of the air
brought her ascending career to a close within a foot of it. There she
remained, horizontal as when she left her nurse's arms, kicking and
laughing amazingly. The nurse in terror flew to the bell, and begged the
footman, who answered it, to bring up the house-steps directly.
Trembling in every limb, she climbed upon the steps, and had to stand
upon the very top, and reach up, before she could catch the floating
tail of the baby's long clothes.

When the strange fact came to be known, there was a terrible commotion
in the palace. The occasion of its discovery by the king was naturally a
repetition of the nurse's experience. Astonished that he felt no weight
when the child was laid in his arms, he began to wave her up and--not
down; for she slowly ascended to the ceiling as before, and there
remained floating in perfect comfort and satisfaction, as was testified
by her peals of tiny laughter. The king stood staring up in speechless
amazement, and trembled so that his beard shook like grass in the wind.
At last, turning to the queen, who was just as horror-struck as himself,
he said, gasping, staring, and stammering:

"She _can't_ be ours, queen!"

Now the queen was much cleverer than the king, and had begun already to
suspect that "this effect defective came by cause."

"I am sure she is ours," answered she. "