great hall, past the page boys who were
playing marbles with india-rubber marbles, and past the kitchen where
the fires burned without crackling and the kettles never boiled over,
and up the wide marble staircase, and along all the passages, until the
sound of her coming even reached the King's ears.

Now the King sat on his throne with cotton wool stuffed in his ears, in
case there should by accident be the least sound in the palace. But,
in spite of that, he heard the clatter of Sunny's shoes coming closer
and closer, and he began to feel terribly nervous lest there really was
going to be a noise at last.

"What is that noise? Take it away and behead it at once!" he said to
the Prime Minister, in his most distinct whisper. But the noise
outside was now so great that the Prime Minister could not hear a word;
and the next moment the door was flung open, and Sunny the Princess ran
into the room. And the King looked so funny as he tried to make the
Prime Minister hear his whispers, and the Prime Minister looked so
funny as he tried to hear the King's whispers, that Sunny was obliged
to laugh; and when she had once begun she found she could not stop, so
she laughed and laughed and laughed; and when the poor, nervous old
King turned again to the Prime Minister to tell him to behead some one
at once, he found that the Prime Minister was laughing too; and
immediately all the pages in the hall, and the courtiers in the
courtyard, and the cooks in the kitchen, and the townspeople in the
streets, and the children in the nurseries, were all laughing as
heartily as they could. And when the sun heard all this laughter, he
finished making up his mind immediately, and came out from behind the
cloud and shone his very best once more. So there was the sunshine
again, and there was everybody laughing, except the King.

Now, when the King found that no one was paying any attention to his
royal whispers, he began to grow angry, and without thinking any more
about it he shouted at the very top of his royal voice. And this was
so remarkable, after sixteen years of whispering, that the laughter was
instantly hushed; and even Sunny the Princess became grave, because she
wanted to see what was going to happen next.

"Who are you?" demanded the King, pointing at her with his sceptre.

"I am Sunny, of course," she said, stepping up to the throne in quite a
friendly manner. All the courtiers looked at one another and nodded.

"She i