tall yellow cap, that the queen stopped to speak to
her.

"'Where are you going, pretty maiden, with your woolly white sheep?' she
asked.

"'I am going up to the hills,' said the shepherdess. 'Now the sun has
scorched up the fields down below we must take our sheep up to the cool
hills, where the grass is still fresh and green. Good-day, good-day, the
sheep are going so fast I cannot wait.' So on she tripped, singing and
calling to her sheep, who came every now and then to rub their soft
coats against her, as if they loved her. The queen looked after her, and
her face began to pucker up.

"'Why am I not a shepherdess?' she exclaimed, bursting into tears. 'I
_hate_ being a queen! I never sang as merrily as that little maiden in
all my life. I must and will be a shepherdess, and drive sheep up into
the mountain, or I shall die!"

"And all that night the foolish queen sat at her window crying, and when
the morning came she had made herself look quite old and ugly. When the
king came to see her he was dreadfully troubled, and begged her to tell
him what was the matter now.

"'I want to be a shepherdess, and drive sheep up into the mountains,'
sobbed the queen. 'Why should the little shepherdess girls look always
so happy and merry, while I am dying of dulness?'

"The king thought it was very unkind of her to say she was dying of
dulness when he had taken so much trouble to get her all she wanted; but
he knew it was no good talking to her while she was in such a temper. So
all he said was:

"'How can I turn you into a shepherdess? These shepherdesses stay out
all night with their sheep on the hills, and live on water and a crust
of bread. How would you like that?'

"'Of course I-should like it,' said the queen, 'anything for a change.
Besides, nothing could be nicer than staying out of doors these lovely
nights. And as for food, you know very well that I am never hungry here,
and that it doesn't matter in the least to me what I eat!'

"'Well,' said the king, 'you shall go up to the hills, if you promise to
take your ladies with you, and if you will let me send a tent to shelter
you at night, and some servants to look after you.'

"'As if that would give me any pleasure!' said the queen, 'to be
followed about and waited upon is just what I detest. I will go alone;
just like that pretty little shepherdess, if I go at all.'

"But the king declared that nothing would induce him to let her go
alone. So the queen se