s not made to serve my mistress like a dog."

Saying this, she took from her hair the great pin that held it, and
pierced the bottle through and through. The water spouted out in every
direction. At the sight the fairy in the tree burst into a fit of
laughter. The negress looked up, saw the beautiful stranger, and
understood the whole.

"Oh!" said she to herself, "so you are the cause of my beating; no
matter, you shall pay me well for it." Then, raising her voice, she
called, in her sweetest tones, "What are you doing up there, lovely
lady?"

The fairy, who was as good as she was beautiful, tried to comfort the
slave by talking with her. The acquaintance was soon made; an innocent
soul is unsuspicious in friendship. The fairy, without distrust, told
the negress all that had happened to her and the prince, why she was
alone in the forest, and how she was every instant expecting Carlino
with a grand equipage to conduct his bride to the king of the
Vermilion Towers, and to marry her there in the presence of all the
court.

On hearing this story, the wicked and envious negress conceived an
abominable idea. "Madame," said she, "if the prince is coming with all
his suite, you must be ready to meet him. Your hair is all in
disorder; let me come to you, and I will comb it."

"With pleasure," answered the fairy, with a gracious smile, as she
stretched out a little white hand, which looked, in Lucy's great black
paw, like a crystal mirror in an ebony frame.

No sooner had she climbed the tree than the wicked slave untied the
fairy's hair and began to comb it; then, all at once, taking her great
hair-pin, she pierced her to the brain. Feeling herself wounded, the
fairy cried, "Palomba! Palomba!" when she instantly turned to a
wood-pigeon and flew away. The horrible negress took her victim's
place, and stretched out her neck among the foliage, looking like a
statue of jet in a niche of emerald.

Meanwhile the prince, mounted on a magnificent horse, was riding
thither at full speed, followed by a long cavalcade. Poor Carlino was
astonished to find a crow where he had left a swan. He almost lost his
reason, his voice was choked with tears, and he gazed in all
directions, hoping to see his bride among the foliage. But the
negress, putting on a suffering air, said to him, casting down her
eyes, "Look no farther, my prince; a wicked fairy has made me her
victim, and a wretched fate has changed your lily to charcoal."

Though