right bank sang the first verse, and
those on the left bank answered:--

Drop, drop from the leaves of lign aloes,
O honey-dew! drop from the tree.
Float up through your clear river shallows,
White lilies, beloved of the bee.

Let the people, O Queen! say, and bless thee,
Her bounty drops soft as the dew,
And spotless in honor confess thee,
As lilies are spotless in hue.

On the roof stands yon white stork awaking,
His feathers flush rosy the while,
For, lo! from the blushing east breaking,
The sun sheds the bloom of his smile.

Let them boast of thy word, "It is certain;
We doubt it no more," let them say,
"Than to-morrow that night's dusky curtain
Shall roll back its folds for the day."

"Master," whispered the old hound, who was lying at Jack's feet.

"Well," said Jack.

"They didn't invent that song themselves," said the hound; "the old
apple-woman taught it to them,--the woman whom they love because she
can make them cry."

Jack was rather ashamed of the hound's rudeness in saying this; but
the Queen took no notice. And now they had reached a little
landing-place, which ran out a few feet into the river, and was
strewed thickly with cowslips and violets.

[Illustration: THE QUEEN.

"Here the boat stopped, and the Queen rose and got out."--PAGE 114.]

Here the boat stopped, and the Queen rose and got out.

Jack watched her. A whole crowd of one-foot-one fairies came down a
garden to meet her, and he saw them conduct her to a beautiful tent,
with golden poles and a silken covering; but nobody took the slightest
notice of him, or of little Mopsa, or of the hound, and after a long
silence the hound said, "Well, master, don't you feel hungry? Why
don't you go with the others and have some breakfast?"

"The Queen didn't invite me," said Jack.

"But do you feel as if you couldn't go?" asked the hound.

"Of course not," answered Jack; "but perhaps I may not."

"Oh, yes, master," replied the hound; "whatever you _can_ do in
Fairyland you _may_ do."

"Are you sure of that?" asked Jack.

"Quite sure, master," said the hound; "and I am hungry too."

"Well," said Jack, "I will go there and take Mopsa. She shall ride on
my shoulder; you may follow."

So he walked up that beautiful garden till he came to the great tent.
A banquet was going on inside. All the one-foot-one fairies sat down
the sides of the table, and at the top sat the Queen on a larger