iage with the daughter of the king of the
period. On the arm of the throne was seated his celebrated cat, wearing
boots. There, too, was a portrait of a beautiful lady, sound asleep:
this was Madame La Belle au Bois-dormant, also an ancestress of the
royal family. Many other pictures of celebrated persons were hanging on
the walls.

"You have asked all the right people, my dear?" said the king.

"Everyone who should be asked," answered the queen.

"People are so touchy on these occasions," said his majesty. "You have
not forgotten any of our aunts?"

"No; the old cats!" replied the queen; for the king's aunts were
old-fashioned, and did not approve of her, and she knew it. "They are
very kind old ladies in their way," said the king; "and were nice to me
when I was a boy."

Then he waited a little, and remarked:

"The fairies, of course, you have invited? It has always been usual, in
our family, on an occasion like this; and I think we have neglected them
a little of late."

"How _can_ you be so _absurd?_" cried the queen. "How often must I tell
you that there are _no_ fairies? And even if there were--but, no matter;
pray let us drop the subject."

"They are very old friends of our family, my dear, that's all," said the
king timidly. "Often and often they have been godmothers to us. One, in
particular, was most kind and most serviceable to Cinderella I., my own
grandmother."

"Your grandmother!" interrupted her majesty. "Fiddle-de-dee! If anyone
puts such nonsense into the head of my little Prigio----"

But here the baby was brought in by the nurse, and the queen almost
devoured it with kisses. And so the fairies were not invited! It was
an extraordinary thing, but none of the nobles could come to the
christening party when they learned that the fairies had not been asked.
Some were abroad; several were ill; a few were in prison among the
Saracens; others were captives in the dens of ogres. The end of it was
that the king and queen had to sit down alone, one at each end of a very
long table, arrayed with plates and glasses for a hundred guests--for a
hundred guests who never came!

"Any soup, my dear?" shouted the king, through a speaking-trumpet; when,
suddenly, the air was filled with a sound like the rustling of the wings
of birds.

_Flitter, flitter, flutter_, went the noise; and when the queen looked
up, lo and behold! on every seat was a lovely fairy, dressed in green,
each with a _most interesting-