down to the others.

And now from the window of a four-wheeled cab the Queen of Babylon
beheld the wonders of London. Buckingham Palace she thought
uninteresting; Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament little
better. But she liked the Tower, and the River, and the ships filled her
with wonder and delight.

'But how badly you keep your slaves. How wretched and poor and neglected
they seem,' she said, as the cab rattled along the Mile End Road.

'They aren't slaves; they're working-people,' said Jane.

'Of course they're working. That's what slaves are. Don't you tell me.
Do you suppose I don't know a slave's face when I see it?

Why don't their masters see that they're better fed and better clothed?
Tell me in three words.'

No one answered. The wage-system of modern England is a little difficult
to explain in three words even if you understand it--which the children
didn't.

'You'll have a revolt of your slaves if you're not careful,' said the
Queen.

'Oh, no,' said Cyril; 'you see they have votes--that makes them safe not
to revolt. It makes all the difference. Father told me so.'

'What is this vote?' asked the Queen. 'Is it a charm? What do they do
with it?'

'I don't know,' said the harassed Cyril; 'it's just a vote, that's all!
They don't do anything particular with it.'

'I see,' said the Queen; 'a sort of plaything. Well, I wish that all
these slaves may have in their hands this moment their fill of their
favourite meat and drink.'

Instantly all the people in the Mile End Road, and in all the other
streets where poor people live, found their hands full of things to eat
and drink. From the cab window could be seen persons carrying every kind
of food, and bottles and cans as well. Roast meat, fowls, red lobsters,
great yellowy crabs, fried fish, boiled pork, beef-steak puddings, baked
onions, mutton pies; most of the young people had oranges and sweets
and cake. It made an enormous change in the look of the Mile End
Road--brightened it up, so to speak, and brightened up, more than you
can possibly imagine, the faces of the people.

'Makes a difference, doesn't it?' said the Queen.

'That's the best wish you've had yet,' said Jane with cordial approval.

just by the Bank the cabman stopped.

'I ain't agoin' to drive you no further,' he said. 'Out you gets.'

They got out rather unwillingly.

'I wants my tea,' he said; and they saw that on the box of the cab was a
mound of cabbage, wi