he morning, she said, "O,
dear me, dear me; my head, my head!" and then she fainted away.

The Princess Alicia, who happened to be looking in at the chamber-door,
asking about breakfast, was very much alarmed when she saw her Royal Mamma
in this state, and she rang the bell for Peggy, which was the name of the
Lord Chamberlain. But remembering where the smelling-bottle was, she
climbed on a chair and got it, and after that she climbed on another chair
by the bedside and held the smelling-bottle to the Queen's nose, and after
that she jumped down and got some water, and after that she jumped up
again and wetted the Queen's forehead, and, in short, when the Lord
Chamberlain came in, that dear old woman said to the little Princess,
"What a Trot you are! I couldn't have done it better myself!"

[Illustration]

But that was not the worst of the good Queen's illness. O, no! She was
very ill indeed, for a long time. The Princess Alicia kept the seventeen
young Princes and Princesses quiet, and dressed and undressed and danced
the baby, and made the kettle boil, and heated the soup, and swept the
hearth, and poured out the medicine, and nursed the Queen, and did all
that ever she could, and was as busy busy busy, as busy could be. For
there were not many servants at that Palace, for three reasons; because
the King was short of money, because a rise in his office never seemed to
come, and because quarter day was so far off that it looked almost as far
off and as little as one of the stars.

But on the morning when the Queen fainted away, where was the magic
fish-bone? Why, there it was in the Princess Alicia's pocket. She had
almost taken it out to bring the Queen to life again, when she put it
back, and looked for the smelling-bottle.

After the Queen had come out of her swoon that morning, and was dozing,
the Princess Alicia hurried up-stairs to tell a most particular secret to
a most particularly confidential friend of hers, who was a Duchess. People
did suppose her to be a Doll; but she was really a Duchess, though nobody
knew it except the Princess.

[Illustration]

This most particular secret was a secret about the magic fish-bone, the
history of which was well known to the Duchess, because the Princess told
her everything. The Princess kneeled down by the bed on which the Duchess
was lying, full-dressed and wide awake, and whispered the secret to her.
The Duchess smiled and nodded. People might have supposed that s