illow.

'Ah! little one,' said the Queen, 'it cost me dear to save your life.
How shall I know now whether my Delicia is being taken care of or no?
Anyone else would have let the greedy old woman have you, and eat you
up, but I could not bear to do it.' Whereupon the Mouse answered:

'Believe me, madam, you will never repent of your kindness.'

The Queen was immensely astonished when the Mouse began to speak, and
still more so when she saw its little sharp nose turn to a beautiful
face, and its paws to hands and feet; then it suddenly grew tall, and
the Queen recognised the Fairy who had come with the wicked King to
visit her.

The Fairy smiled at her astonished look, and said:

'I wanted to see if you were faithful and capable of feeling a real
friendship for me, for you see we fairies are rich in everything but
friends, and those are hard to find.'

'It is not possible that YOU should want for friends, you charming
creature,' said the Queen, kissing her.

'Indeed it is so,' the Fairy said. 'For those who are only friendly with
me for their own advantage, I do not count at all. But when you cared
for the poor little mouse you could not have known there was anything to
be gained by it, and to try you further I took the form of the old woman
whom you talked to from the window, and then I was convinced that you
really loved me.' Then, turning to the little Princess, she kissed her
rosy lips three times, saying:

'Dear little one, I promise that you shall be richer than your father,
and shall live a hundred years, always pretty and happy, without fear of
old age and wrinkles.'

The Queen, quite delighted, thanked the Fairy gratefully, and begged
her to take charge of the little Delicia and bring her up as her own
daughter. This she agreed to do, and then they shut the basket and
lowered it carefully, baby and all, to the ground at the foot of the
tower. The Fairy then changed herself back into the form of a mouse,
and this delayed her a few seconds, after which she ran nimbly down the
straw rope, but only to find when she got to the bottom that the baby
had disappeared.

In the greatest terror she ran up again to the Queen, crying:

'All is lost! my enemy Cancaline has stolen the Princess away. You must
know that she is a cruel fairy who hates me, and as she is older than
I am and has more power, I can do nothing against her. I know no way of
rescuing Delicia from her clutches.'

When the Queen heard this te