.

CHAPTER XV.

THE QUEEN'S WAND.

One, two, three, four; one, two, three, four;
'Tis still one, two, three, four.
Mellow and silvery are the tones,
But I wish the bells were more.

SOUTHEY.

Mopsa woke: she was rather too big to be nursed, for she was the size
of Jack, and looked like a sweet little girl of ten years, but she did
not always behave like one; sometimes she spoke as wisely as a
grown-up woman, and sometimes she changed again and seemed like a
child.

Mopsa lifted up her head and pushed back her long hair: her coronet
had fallen off while she was in the bed of reeds; and she said to the
beautiful dame,--

"I am a queen now."

"Yes, my sweet Queen," answered the lady, "I know you are."

"And you promise that you will be kind to me till I grow up," said
Mopsa, "and love me, and teach me how to reign?"

"Yes," repeated the lady; "and I will love you too, just as if you
were a mortal and I your mother."

"For I am only ten years old yet," said Mopsa, "and the throne is too
big for me to sit upon; but I am a queen." And then she paused, and
said, "Is it three o'clock?"

As she spoke, the sweet, clear bell of the castle sounded three times,
and then chimes began to play: they played such a joyous tune that it
made everybody sing. The dame sang, the crowd of fairies sang, the
boy who was Jack's double sang, and Mopsa sang,--only Jack was
silent,--and this was the song:--

The prince shall to the chase again,
The dame has got her face again,
The king shall have his place again
Aneath the fairy dome.

And all the knights shall woo again,
And all the doves shall coo again,
And all the dreams come true again,
And Jack shall go home.

"We shall see about that!" thought Jack to himself. And Mopsa, while
she sang those last words, burst into tears, which Jack did not like
to see; but all the fairies were so very glad, so joyous, and so
delighted with her for having come to be their queen, that after a
while she dried her eyes, and said to the wrong boy,--

"Jack, when I pulled the lining out of your pocket-book there was a
silver fourpence in it."

"Yes," said the real Jack, "and here it is."

"Is it real money?" asked Mopsa. "Are you sure you brought it with you
all the way from your own country?"

"Yes," said Jack, "quite sure."

"Then, dear Jack," answered Mopsa, "will you give it to me?"

"I will," said Jack, "if you will send this boy away.