THEY RUN AWAY FROM OLD MOTHER FATE.

A land that living warmth disowns,
It meets my wondering ken;
A land where all the men are stones,
Or all the stones are men.

Before the apple-woman had finished, Jack and Mopsa saw the Queen
coming in great state, followed by thousands of the one-foot-one
fairies, and leading by a ribbon round its neck a beautiful brown doe.
A great many pretty fawns were walking among the fairies.

"Here's the deputation," said the apple-woman; but as the Guinea-fowl
rose like a cloud at the approach of the Queen, and the fairies and
fawns pressed forward, there was a good deal of noise and confusion,
during which Mopsa stepped up close to Jack, and whispered in his ear,
"Remember, Jack, whatever you can do you may do."

Then the brown doe laid down at Mopsa's feet, and the Queen began:--

"Jack and Mopsa, I love you both. I had a message last night from my
old mother, and I told you what it was."

"Yes, Queen," said Mopsa, "you did."

"And now," continued the Queen, "she has sent this beautiful brown doe
from the country beyond the lake, where they are in the greatest
distress for a queen, to offer Mopsa the crown; and, Jack, it is fated
that Mopsa is to reign there, so you had better say no more about
it."

"I don't want to be a queen," said Mopsa, pouting; "I want to play
with Jack."

"You are a queen already," answered the real Queen; "at least, you
will be in a few days. You are so much grown, even since the morning,
that you come up nearly to Jack's shoulder. In four days you will be
as tall as I am; and it is quite impossible that any one of fairy
birth should be as tall as a queen in her own country."

"But I don't see what stags and does can want with a queen," said
Jack.

"They were obliged to turn into deer," said the Queen, "when they
crossed their own border; but they are fairies when they are at home,
and they want Mopsa, because they are always obliged to have a queen
of alien birth."

"If I go," said Mopsa, "shall Jack go too?"

"Oh, no," answered the Queen; "Jack and the apple-woman are my
subjects."

"Apple-woman," said Jack, "tell us what you think; shall Mopsa go to
this country?"

"Why, child," said the apple-woman, "go away from here she must; but
she need not go off with the deer, I suppose, unless she likes. They
look gentle and harmless; but it is very hard to get at the truth in
this country, and I've heard queer stories about them."