our hands.'

You will understand by this that the King and Queen were not as well off
as they could wish; so that tradesmen calling at the palace with that
sort of message was the last thing likely to excite remark. But as most
of the King's subjects were not very well off either, this was merely a
bond between the King and his people. They could sympathise with each
other, and understand each other's troubles in a way impossible to most
kings and most nations.

You can imagine the excitement in the families of the people who were
invited to the christening party, and the interest they felt in their
costumes. The Lord Chief Justice disguised himself as a shoemaker; he
still had his old blue brief-bag by him, and a brief-bag and a boot-bag
are very much alike. The Commander-in-Chief dressed as a dog's meat man
and wheeled a barrow. The Prime Minister appeared as a tailor; this
required no change of dress and only a slight change of expression. And
the other courtiers all disguised themselves perfectly. So did the good
fairies, who had, of course, been invited first of all. Benevola, Queen
of the Good Fairies, disguised herself as a moonbeam, which can go into
any palace and no questions asked. Serena, the next in command, dressed
as a butterfly, and all the other fairies had disguises equally pretty
and tasteful.

The Queen looked most kind and beautiful, the King very handsome and
manly, and all the guests agreed that the new princess was the most
beautiful baby they had ever seen in all their born days.

Everybody brought the most charming christening presents concealed
beneath their disguises. The fairies gave the usual gifts, beauty,
grace, intelligence, charm, and so on.

Everything seemed to be going better than well. But of course you know
it wasn't. The Lord High Admiral had not been able to get a cook's dress
large enough completely to cover his uniform; a bit of an epaulette had
peeped out, and the wicked fairy, Malevola, had spotted it as he went
past her to the palace back door, near which she had been sitting
disguised as a dog without a collar hiding from the police, and enjoying
what she took to be the trouble the royal household were having with
their tradesmen.

Malevola almost jumped out of her dog-skin when she saw the glitter of
that epaulette.

'Hullo?' she said, and sniffed quite like a dog. 'I must look into
this,' said she, and disguising herself as a toad, she crept unseen into
the pipe