queen.

"Foolish, blinded child," cried Herr Dapsul, "do you not give your
father credit for possessing sufficient cabalistic science to be well
aware that what the abominable Daucus Carota made you suppose you saw
was all deception and falsehood? No, you don't believe me, and to save
you, my only child, I must convince you, and this conviction must be
arrived at by most desperate methods. Come with me."

For the second time she had to go up into the astronomical tower with
her papa. From a big band-box Herr Dapsul took a quantity of yellow,
red, white, and green ribbon, and, with strange ceremonies, he wrapped
Fraeulein Aennchen up in it from head to foot. He did the same to
himself, and then they both went very carefully to the silken palace of
Daucus Carota the First. It was close shut, and by her papa's
directions, she had to rip a small opening in one of the seams of it
with a large pair of scissors, and then peep in at the opening.

Heaven be about us! what did she see? Instead of the beautiful
vegetable garden, the carrot guards, the plumed ladies, lavender pages,
lettuce princes, and so forth, she found herself looking down into a
deep pool which seemed to be full of a colourless, disgusting-looking
slime, in which all kinds of horrible creatures from the bowels of the
earth were creeping and twining about. There were fat worms slowly
writhing about amongst each other, and beetle-like creatures stretching
out their short legs and creeping heavily out. On their backs they bore
big onions; but these onions had ugly human faces, and kept fleering
and leering at each other with bleared yellow eyes, and trying, with
their little claws (which were close behind their ears), to catch hold
of one another by their long roman noses, and drag each other down into
the slime, while long, naked slugs were rolling about in crowds, with
repulsive torpidity, stretching their long horns out of their depths.
Fraeulein Aennchen was nearly fainting away at this horrid sight. She
held both hands to her face, and ran away as hard as she could.

"You see now, do you not," said Herr Dapsul, "how this atrocious Daucus
Carota has been deceiving you in showing you splendours of brief
duration? He dressed his vassals up in gala dresses to delude you with
dazzling displays. But now you have seen the kingdom which you want to
reign over in undress uniform; and when you become the consort of
the frightful Daucus Carota you will have to live