ight," said Chubbins.

The King looked at him attentively.

"Would you really prefer to resume your old shape, and cease to be a
bird?" he asked.

"Yes, if I could," Chubbins replied.

"Then I will tell you how to do it," said the King. "Since you told me
your strange story I have talked with my Royal Necromancer, who knows a
good deal about magic, and especially about that same tuxix who
wickedly transformed you in the forest. And the Royal Necromancer tells
me that if you can find a tingle-berry, and eat it, you will resume
your natural form again. For it is the one antidote in all the world
for the charm the tuxix worked upon you."

"What _is_ a tingle-berry?" asked Twinkle, anxiously, for this
information interested her as much as it did Chubbins.

"I do not know," said the King, "for it is a common forest berry, and
never grows in our paradise. But doubtless you will have little trouble
in finding the bush of the tingle-berry when you return to the outside
world."

The children were both eager to go at once and seek the tingle-berry;
but they could not be so impolite as to run away just then, for the
King announced that he had prepared an entertainment in their honor.

So they sat on a branch of the golden bush beside their friend Ephel,
while at a nod from the King a flock of the beautiful Birds of Paradise
flew into the bower and proceeded to execute a most delightful and
bewildering set of aerial evolutions. They flew swiftly in circles,
spirals, triangles, and solid squares, and all the time that they
performed sweet music was played by some unseen band. It almost dazzled
the eyes of the child-larks to watch this brilliant flashing of the
colored wings of the birds, but the evolutions only lasted for a few
minutes, and then the birds flew out again in regular ranks.

Then the little brown lady-birds danced gracefully upon the carpet,
their dainty feet merely touching the tips of the lovely flowers.
Afterward the flowers themselves took part, and sang a delightful
chorus, and when this was finished the King said they would now indulge
in some refreshment.

Instantly a row of bell-shaped blossoms appeared upon the golden bush,
one for each bird present, and all were filled with a delicious ice
that was as cold and refreshing as if it had just been taken from a
freezer. Twinkle and Chubbins asked for spoons, and received them
quickly; but the others all ate the ices with their bills.

The King seemed