ld Fairy had made him so self-willed.

Just at this time the Fairy of the Beech-Woods received a visit from
an old friend of hers called Saradine, who rushed into her house so
breathless with rage that she could hardly speak.

'Dear, dear! what is the matter?' said the Fairy of the Beech-Woods
soothingly.

'The matter!' cried Saradine. 'You shall soon hear all about it. You
know that, not content with endowing Celandine, Princess of the Summer
Islands, with everything she could desire to make her charming, I
actually took the trouble to bring her up myself; and now what does she
do but come to me with more coaxings and caresses than usual to beg a
favour. And what do you suppose this favour turns out to be--when I have
been cajoled into promising to grant it? Nothing more nor less than
a request that I will take back all my gifts--"since," says my young
madam, "if I have the good fortune to please you, how am I to know that
it is really I, myself? And that's how it will be all my life long,
whenever I meet anybody. You see what a weariness my life will be to me
under these circumstances, and yet I assure you I am not ungrateful to
you for all your kindness!" I did all I could,' continued Saradine, 'to
make her think better of it, but in vain; so after going through the
usual ceremony for taking back my gifts, I'm come to you for a little
peace and quietness. But, after all, I have not taken anything of
consequence from this provoking Celandine. Nature had already made her
so pretty, and given her such a ready wit of her own, that she will
do perfectly well without me. However, I thought she deserved a little
lesson, so to begin with I have whisked her off into the desert, and
there left her!'

'What! all alone, and without any means of existence?' cried the
kind-hearted old Fairy. 'You had better hand her over to me. I don't
think so very badly of her after all. I'll just cure her vanity by
making her love someone better than herself. Really, when I come to
consider of it, I declare the little minx has shown more spirit and
originality in the matter than one expects of a princess.'

Saradine willingly consented to this arrangement, and the old Fairy's
first care was to smooth away all the difficulties which surrounded
the Princess, and lead her by the mossy path overhung with trees to the
bower of the King and Queen, who still pursued their peaceful life in
the valley.

They were immensely surprised at her appear