ow Mopsa, I am sorry to say, was behaving so badly that Jack was
quite ashamed of her. First, she got out of her dish, took something
nice out of the Queen's plate with her fingers, and ate it; and then,
as she was going back, she tumbled over a melon, and upset a glass of
red wine, which she wiped up with her white frock; after which she got
into her dish again, and there she sat smiling, and daubing her pretty
face with a piece of buttered muffin.

"Mopsa," said Jack, "you are very naughty; if you behave in this way,
I shall never take you out to parties again."

"Pretty lamb!" said the apple-woman; "It's just like a child." And
then she burst into tears, and exclaimed, sobbing, "It's many a long
day since I've seen a child. Oh dear! oh deary me!"

Upon this, to the astonishment of Jack, every one of the guests began
to cry and sob too.

"Oh dear! oh dear!" they said to one another, "we're crying; we can
cry just as well as men and women. Isn't it delightful? What a luxury
it is to cry, to be sure!"

They were evidently quite proud of it; and when Jack looked at the
Queen for an explanation, she only gave him a still little smile.

But Mopsa crept along the table to the apple-woman, let her take her
and hug her, and seemed to like her very much; for as she sat on her
knee, she patted her brown face with a little dimpled hand.

"I should like vastly well to be her nurse," said the apple-woman,
drying her eyes, and looking at Jack.

"If you'll always wash her, and put clean frocks on her, you may,"
said Jack; "for just look at her,--what a figure she is already!"

Upon this the apple-woman laughed for joy, and again every one else
did the same. The fairies can only laugh and cry when they see mortals
do so.

CHAPTER IX.

AFTER THE PARTY.

_Stephano._--This will prove a brave kingdom to me,
Where I shall have my music for nothing.

_The Tempest._

When breakfast was over, the guests got up, one after the other,
without taking the least notice of the Queen; and the tent began to
get so thin and transparent that you could see the trees and the sky
through it. At last, it looked only like a colored mist, with blue,
and green, and yellow stripes, and then it was gone; and the table and
all the things on it began to go in the same way. Only Jack, and the
apple-woman, and Mopsa were left, sitting on their chairs, with the
Queen between them.

Presently, the Queen's lips began to mo