d and clapped its hands; the sound of his nurse's
voice pleased him, and Walpurga said:

"He's just like a canary-bird; when there's lots of chattering in the
room, he joins in with his merry song. Isn't it so, you canary-bird?"
said she, shaking her head at the child, while it crowed yet more
lustily than before.

Buried in thought, the queen passed her hand over her face several
times. Walpurga's words had transported her into another world. And so,
thought she, there are other beings, beneath me and far away, who pass
their days in work and care and yet are happy.

"What makes you look so sad?" asked Walpurga.

Her question had recalled the queen to herself. No one had ever read
her face in this way. No one could, or would have questioned her thus.

The queen made no answer, and Walpurga continued:

"Oh, my dear queen, I can't help thinking you must have a hard time of
it. To have plenty of everything isn't so good for one after all. It's
like having your heaven on earth. Have you never felt lonely and lorn?
When one wakes to sorrow and thinks that one still has sound limbs, and
can work, and can see the sun and know that there are still good people
in the world--it's then that you really feel at home in the world. Oh,
my dear queen, don't be sad. You couldn't, if you knew how happy you
ought to feel."

The queen was silent for a long while. There must have been something
in Walpurga that suggested the thought, for she at last said: "They
play William Tell to-night. I would like you to go to the theater, for
once."

Walpurga said:

"I'd like to go, well enough. Mademoiselle Kramer has told me a great
deal about it; it must be splendid, but I can't take the child with me,
and I can't leave it alone for so long a time. See how he listens, and
what a cross voice he has already. He understands everything we say,
I'll bet my head on it."

The boy began to cry. Walpurga took him up in her arms, fondled him and
sang:

I won't leave you a minute,
To see the finest play;
It's better far, and safer,
If at home with you I stay.

The little prince was soon quieted and fell asleep.

"Yes, you're right," said the queen, after a pause. "Remain just as you
are, and when you go home again, don't think of what is past. Only
think that your lot is the best in the world."

The queen left. Walpurga felt like telling Mademoiselle Kramer that the
qu