-willows."

"Give us something to do for the dear children, dearest Queen!" cried
Dewdrop and Lilliebelle, two of the most famous beauties of the court,
and, what is far better, as good as they were beautiful; "let us also
help to make them happy."

"Well said, fair ladies and brave knights!" exclaimed the Queen; "with
such true and loyal assistance, my labor of love will be most
delightful. Come now--to the dance--while they are preparing supper."

She clapped her tiny hands thrice, and immediately the fairy band
commenced playing the most enchanting dances; and the beautiful hollow
was speedily filled with couples, whisking away in such rapid
evolutions, that you would have thought they would soon tumble head
over heels, from sheer dizziness; but as the dances were, after all,
not very different from ours, I suppose the fairies were quite as well
used to the rushing style; and, in good truth, as they were _fairies_,
it seemed more in keeping, for these rapid, gracefully undulating
movements, were the very poetry of motion.

Of course the elderly gentlemen fairies lounged among the
honeysuckles, and talked politics, and quarrelled dreadfully about who
should be the next President; for they took an immense interest in the
affairs of us mortals; and the elderly lady fairies just as much, of
course, pulled the characters of their best friends to pieces, without
so much as a single regret; while the lovely young Queen, with
half-a-dozen of her favorites, after dancing once, to set the fashion,
ordered her pages to shake down a perfect shower of wild-rose leaves,
on the edge of the hollow, of which they made soft and freshly
perfumed couches; and there they listened to the exquisite music, and
watched the dancers, and gaily devised plans for the comfort of our
dear little friend, Lame Charley.

While they were thus conversing, a queer little elfin sped down one of
the moonbeams, like a flash of summer lightning, and in an instant was
on his knee before the Queen.

It was the fairy, Slyboots, the Queen's favorite messenger, and the
most mischievous sprite in her dominions.

"Welcome, good Slyboots," cried the Queen; "by your bright eyes and
unsoiled wings, methinks you must have fulfilled our commands
faithfully. How fared you? and how did you find our dear 'Nightcap'
family?"

"Most gracious Majesty! I hurried to the great city, without folding
wing; merely stopping a moment to torment a miserly old landlord, who,