boldly; for the handsome brown face with the kind eyes was very like her
father's, she thought.

"He shall have it. Now wish three wishes for yourself, my child, and I
will grant them if I can."

Betty showed all her little white teeth as she laughed for joy at this
splendid offer. Then she said slowly,--

"I have but one wish now, for the Princess has given me a dear doll and
many books; so I am the happiest creature in all the kingdom, and have
no wants."

"Contented little lass! Who of us can say the same?" said the King,
looking at the people round him, who dropped their eyes and looked
foolish, for they were always asking favors of the good King. "Well, now
let us know the one thing I can do to please brave woodman John's little
daughter."

"Please let the Princess come and play with me," said Betty, eagerly.

The lords looked horrified, and the ladies as if they would faint away
at the mere idea of such a dreadful thing. But the Queen nodded,
Bonnibelle cried, "Oh, do!" and the King laughed as he asked in a
surprised tone,--

"But why not come and play with her here? What is there at the cottage
that we have not at the palace?"

"Many things, Lord King," answered Betty. "She is tired of the palace
and everything in it, she says, and longs to run about in the wood, and
be well and gay and busy all day long, as I am. She wants to bake and
milk and sweep and knit, and hear the wind blow, and dance with the
daisies, and talk with my birds, and dream happy dreams, and love to be
alive, as I do."

"Upon my word, here's a bold Brownie! But she is right, I think; and if
my Princess can get a pair of cheeks like these down at the cottage, she
shall go as often as she likes," said the King, amused at Betty's free
words, and struck by the contrast between the two faces before him, one
like a pale garden lily and the other like a fresh wild rose.

Then Bonnibelle burst out and told all the story of the day, talking as
she had never talked before; and every one listened, amazed to see how
lively and sweet her Highness could be, and wondered what had made such
a sudden change. But the old nurse went about, saying in a whisper,--

"She is a real Brownie, I know it; for no mortal child would be so bold
and bright, and do what she has done,--bewitched both King and Queen,
and made her Highness a new child."

So all looked at Betty with great respect; and when at last the talk was
over and the King rose to go, with a