h for them when they were here."

Willie sighed. "It must have been a nice country," he said.

"It was, dear; the nicest country in the world. It was always summer
there, too, and holiday time."

"Didn't they have any lessons to learn?"

"No; because they'd learned them all."

"Did they have roads and railways?" Willie made further inquiry.

"No; only narrow green lanes, which led straight into fairyland. And the
longer you walked in them the less tired you were."

"Tell me a story about the country over there," said Willie, nestling up
to Elisabeth; "and let there be a princess in it."

She put her strong arm round him and held him close. "Once upon a time,"
she began, "there was a princess, who lived among the smoke and the
furnaces."

"Was she very beautiful?"

"No; but she happened to have a heart made of real gold. That was the
only rare thing about her; otherwise she was quite a common princess."

"What did she do with the heart?" asked Willie.

"She wanted to give it to somebody; but the strange thing was that
nobody would have it. Several people asked her for it before they knew
it was made of real gold; but when they found that out, they began to
make excuses. One said that he'd no place in his house for such a
first-class article; it would merely make the rest of the furniture look
shabby, and he shouldn't refurnish in order to please anybody. Another
said that he wasn't going to bother himself with looking after a real
gold heart, when a silver-gilt one would serve his purpose just as well.
And a third said that solid gold plate wasn't worth the trouble of
cleaning and keeping in order, as it was sure to get scratched or bent
in the process, the precious metals being too soft for everyday use."

"It is difficult not to scratch when you're cleaning plate," Willie
observed. "I sometimes help Simpkins, and there's only one spoon that
he'll let me clean, for fear I should scratch; and that's quite an old
one that doesn't matter. So I have to clean it over and over again. But
go on about the princess."

"Well, then she offered her gold heart to a woman who seemed lonely and
desolate; but the woman only cared for the hearts of men, and threw back
the princess's in her face. And then somebody advised her to set it up
for auction, to go to the highest bidder, as that was generally
considered the correct thing to do with regard to well-regulated women's
hearts; but she didn't like that suggestion at al