ople
were on the point of celebrating their wedding for the hundred and
first time; so the King and Queen were married almost before they knew
it themselves, and certainly before the people discovered that somebody
was really being married at last. This, however, was not at all
surprising, for the real wedding was very much the same as all the
make-believe ones, except that it took a little longer because the King
and Queen were not so used to being married as the people were to
marrying them.

After that, every one was as happy as it was possible to be. The
country had grown so accustomed to being frivolous that it never became
serious again; and the King never made another law, because the people
were so fond of Lady Whimsical that they did everything she told them,
and therefore no laws were needed. The result of all this happiness
was that nobody in the kingdom ever grew old; and the Lady Whimsical
who sits and laughs on her throne at this very moment is the same Lady
Whimsical who sat and laughed on the doorstep of her rose-leaf house,
years and years and years ago.

[Illustration: THE LADY EMMELINA IS ALWAYS KEPT IN HER PROPER PLACE NOW]

The Doll that came straight from Fairyland

The country was celebrating the tenth birthday of the Prince
Perfection. That particular country always celebrated the tenth
birthday of its princes and princesses, but never before had it gone so
completely wild with joy. The fireworks began punctually at sunrise,
and so did everything else that was worth beginning; and the happy
shouts of the people made conversation quite impossible, except in the
royal family, which was fully accustomed to being shouted at whenever
the country had a whole holiday. The Prince had five hundred and
fifty-four birthday presents, and his Secretaries spent all their
summer holidays in writing letters to acknowledge them; and every child
in the kingdom who was of the same age as the Prince was allowed to
come to the palace gates and receive a royal smile and a large box of
barley sugar from Prince Perfection himself. In the afternoon, the
Prince drove through the streets over a carpet of flowers and smiled
without stopping; and by his side sat the little Princess Pansy, who
was not smiling at all, for she had no birthday and no presents, and
two years was a long time to wait before she, too, should be ten years
old. Still, she was so fond of the Prince Perfection that she would
not