ff
through the forests and over the fields to the palace of the kings and
queens of Goldenlands.

Oh, dear, how delighted the people were to see their little queen coming
home again. The Government had been behaving dreadfully all this long
time, and had been most unkind to the kingdom. Everybody knew it was
really Pet, because she had grown so like her mother, whom they had all
loved; and besides they quite expected to see her coming, as messengers
had been sent into all the corners of the world searching for her. As
these messengers had been gone about eight or nine years, the people
thought it was high time for Queen Pet to appear. The cruel Government,
however, was in a great fright, as it had counted on being allowed to go
on reigning for many years longer, and it ran away in a hurry out of the
back door of the palace, and escaped to the other side of the world;
where, as nobody knew anything of its bad ways, it was able to begin
life over again under a new name.

Just at the same moment a fresh excitement broke out among the joyful
people when it was known that thirty-five of the queen's royal names,
lost on the day of her christening, had been found at last. And where do
you think they were found? One had dropped into a far corner of the
waistcoat pocket of the old clerk, who had been so busy saying "Amen,"
that he had not noticed the accident. Only yesterday, while making a
strict search for a small morsel of tobacco to replenish his pipe, had
he discovered the precious name. Twenty-five more of the names had
rolled into a mouse-hole, where they had lain snugly hidden among
generations of young mice ever since; six had been carried off by a most
audacious sparrow who had built his nest in the rafters of the
church-roof; and none of these thirty-one names would ever have seen the
light again only that repairs and decorations were getting made in the
old building for the coronation of the queen. Last of all, four names
were brought to the palace by young girls of the village, whose mothers
had stolen them through vanity on the day of the christening, thinking
they would be pretty for their own little babes. The girls being now
grown up had sense enough to know that such finery was not becoming to
their station; and, besides, they did not see the fun of having names
which they were obliged to keep secret. So Nancy, Polly, Betsy, and Jane
(the names they had now chosen instead) brought back their stolen goods
and