rainbows and starshine and dewdrops; every thing that is bright and
sweet-looking had helped to make her palace, and from the very middle
of it rose a tall, silvery bell-tower, from which peals of laughter
were ringing merrily.

"Oh, oh! how beautiful!" exclaimed Molly. "But how is it that my
palace is so bright while Wympland is so dull?"

"Ah," said Queer, softly; "we wished for the palace, you see, and the
things we wish for are never dull."

"It is a dream-palace," added Wilful; "and dreams are never dull
either."

"I hope it will not go away as my dreams do when I wake up in the
morning," said Molly.

"Oh, no," they assured her. "It cannot disappear until we wish it to
go away again; and that we shall never do as long as it induces you to
stay with us."

"Do you always wish for what you want?" asked Molly.

"Dear me, yes," said Captious. "What is the use of having a lot of
things lying about that you don't want? There is only just enough room
in Wympland for the things we do want, so we wish for them as we want
them, and that is much more convenient. You should try it."

"Everything you see here," added Skilful, "has been wished for, some
time or another. Neither Wympland, nor the wymps, nor our bewymping
little Queen would be here at all if somebody had not wished for them."

"And if we were all to wish hard at the same moment," said Wilful, "not
one of us would be left standing here, nor would there be any country
at all at the back of the sun."

"But we shall never wish that, now that we have a real Queen of our
own," said Queer.

Then, for the first time, Molly noticed that this strange little
country at the back of the sun had no people in it; for, ever since she
had waked up on the King's throne, she had seen no one except Skilful
and Wilful and Captious and Queer.

"Where are all the other wymps?" she cried.

"Ah," they said, mysteriously; "most people don't know it, but the
wymps go through the sun every morning and spend the day in making fun
for the people on the other side. That is how the people down in the
world are taught to laugh instead of to cry. There would be no
laughter at all at the front of the sun if it were not for the wymps."

"How strange!" said Molly. "I always thought it was wrong to make fun
of people."

"So it is," said Queer; "nobody but a bad wymp would do such a thing.
A true wymp makes fun _for_ people, and that is a very different thing."

"A _very_