nd so she had a great, powerful Government to do it
for her. This Government was a most peculiar monster, with nine hundred
and ninety-nine heads and scarcely any heart; and when anything was to
be decided upon, all the heads had to be laid together, so that it took
a long time to make up its mind. It was not at all good to the kingdom,
but little Pet did not know anything about that, as she was kept away in
her splendid nursery, with all her nurses watching her, while she played
with the most wonderful toys. Sometimes she was taken out to walk in the
gardens, with three nurses holding a parasol over her head, a page
carrying her embroidered train, three nurses walking before, fanning
her, and six nurses following behind; but she never had any playfellows,
and nothing ever happened at all different from everything else. The
only variety in her life was made by startling sounds, which often came
echoing to the nursery, of the gate-bell of the palace ringing loudly.

"Why does the bell ring so?" little Pet would cry, and the nurses would
answer:

"Oh, it is only the poor!"

"Who are the poor?" asked Pet.

"People who are born to torment respectable folks!" said the head nurse.

"They must be very naughty people!" lisped Pet, and went on with her
play.

When Pet grew a little older she became very tired of dolls and
skipping-ropes, and she really did not know what to do with herself; so
one day, when all the nurses had gone down to dinner at the same time,
she escaped from her nursery and tripped down the passages, peering into
the corners on every side. After wandering about a long time she came to
a staircase, and descending it very quickly she reached a suite of
beautiful rooms which had been occupied by her mother. They remained
just as the good queen had left them; even the faded roses were turning
into dust in the jars. Pet was walking through the rooms very soberly,
peering at, and touching everything, when she heard a queer little
sound of moaning and whispering and complaining, which came like little
piping gusts of wind from somewhere or other.

"Fiss-whiss, whiss, whiss, whiss!" went the little whispers; and "Ah!"
and "Ai!" and "Oh!" came puffing after them, like the strangest little
sighs.

"Oh, dear, what _can_ it be?" thought Pet, standing in the middle of the
room and gazing all round. "I declare I do think it is coming out of the
wardrobe!"

An ancient carved wardrobe extended all along one side