ilda asked.

'What do you want of the Queen?' inquired the Air Spirit
superciliously.

'I want to ask her where the Diamond Waterdrop is,' answered Hilda.

'You will never get on in this country unless you carry your nose more
in the air than you do,' observed the Air Spirit. 'As for her Majesty,
she sits in the large star up yonder with the white ray. Mind you
don't break your neck. Ta-ta!'

Hilda went onward very disconsolately. As to carrying her nose in the
air she had never in her life felt less inclined to do such a thing.
By and by she came to the spot where the white ray of light from the
Queen's star touched the solid air. A number of Air Spirits were
walking up and down it like so many tight-rope dancers.

'Look at that absurd child!' they said to one another. 'See how she
hangs her head! Why doesn't she put on airs? She will never come to
anything.'

Hilda began to climb up the long white ray; and though at first she
was very much frightened, by degrees she gained courage, and at last
she was able to walk along tolerably fast. But it was a long distance
to the top, and by the time she got there she was almost ready to drop
with fatigue.

The star, when she entered it, was a glorious place indeed; and the
Queen of the Air Spirits was dazzlingly beautiful, though Hilda
fancied that she looked upon her rather haughtily. She was seated upon
a throne of fretted sunshine; and as soon as Hilda was within hearing
she said:

'I have been expecting you. You have come a long way, and you look
very tired. Come here and sit down.'

'No, your Majesty,' replied Hilda faintly, 'I have no time to sit down
or to stay. I have come to ask you for the Diamond Waterdrop.'

'For the Diamond Waterdrop indeed!' exclaimed the Queen, laughing.
'And pray what made you suppose that you would find the Diamond
Waterdrop here? However, sit down here beside me, and let us talk
about it. Such a question as you ask cannot be answered in a moment.'

But Hilda shook her head.

'Listen to me, my dear Princess,' said the Queen again, more
courteously than she had yet spoken. 'I know that you like to have
everything your own way; and, as you are perhaps aware, there is no
one who can have things so entirely her own way as can the Queen of
the Air Spirits. Now, Princess Hilda, if you will sit down here on my
throne I will let you be Queen of the Air Spirits instead of me. You
shall have everything your own way, and you shall put on a