reached to
his knee the day before, and now her little bright head, when he
measured her, came as high as the second button of his waistcoat.

"But I hope you will not go on growing so fast as this," said Jack,
"or you will be as tall as my mamma is in a week or two,--much too big
for me to play with."

CHAPTER X.

MOPSA LEARNS HER LETTERS.

A----apple-pie.
B----bit it.

"How ashamed I am," Jack said, "to think that you don't know even your
letters!"

Mopsa replied that she thought that did not signify, and then she and
Jack began to play at jumping from the boat on to the bank, and back
again; and afterwards, as not a single fairy could be seen, they had
breakfast with the apple-woman.

"Where is the Queen?" asked Jack.

The apple-woman answered, "It's not the fashion to ask questions in
Fairyland."

"That's a pity," said Jack, "for there are several things that I
particularly want to know about this country. Mayn't I even ask how
big it is?"

"How big?" said Mopsa,--little Mopsa looking as wise as possible.
"Why, the same size as your world, of course."

Jack laughed. "It's the same world that you call yours," continued
Mopsa; "and when I'm a little older, I'll explain it all to you."

"If it's our world," said Jack, "why are none of us in it, excepting
me and the apple-woman?"

"That's because you've got something in your world that you call
TIME," said Mopsa; "so you talk about NOW, and you talk about THEN."

"And don't you?" asked Jack.

"I do if I want to make you understand," said Mopsa.

The apple-woman laughed, and said, "To think of the pretty thing
talking so queen-like already! Yes, that's right, and just what the
grown-up fairies say. Go on, and explain it to him if you can."

"You know," said Mopsa, "that your people say there was a time when
there were none of them in the world,--a time before they were made.
Well, THIS is that time. This is long ago."

"Nonsense!" said Jack. "Then how do I happen to be here?"

"Because," said Mopsa, "when the albatross brought you, she did not
fly with you a long way off, but a long way back,--hundreds and
hundreds of years. This is your world, as you can see; but none of
your people are here, because they are not made yet. I don't think any
of them will be made for a thousand years."

"But I saw the old ships," answered Jack, "in the enchanted bay."

"That was a border country," said Mopsa. "I was asleep while you went
through