ng
up from the waterfall.

Leaning back in her carriage sat the Queen Fairy, fanning her face with
a fly's wing.

The beetles came to a stand in front of the palace, and the Queen,
gathering up her white satin dress, stepped out.

Instantly numerous ladies in waiting, jumped from off their butterfly
steeds and escorted her through the palace door.

Ned cautiously peeped in again. The room was filled with fairies about
as large as your thumb, dancing here and there and singing a low, sweet
song.

On perceiving that a mortal was gazing at them they began to dance more
slowly, and presently ceased altogether. Whereupon the Queen, looking
about to ascertain the reason and catching sight of Ned's admiring face,
exclaimed:

"No wonder you feel so faint, my little fays, and that you stop your
merry dancing. The hot air is pouring in upon us from a fiery furnace
outside. Look here, my giant friend," she added, coming up to Ned, "if
you want to see how we live you mustn't hold your mouth open with
astonishment. Your breath is very hot to us little people!"

With that the mischievous Queen jumped quite unexpectedly on Ned's nose
and gave it a sharp pinch.

"Don't cry," said the fairy in a cheery voice, the laughs falling from
her like waterdrops from the cascade just outside; "I only wanted to
let you know what I could do; but I am ready to be as polite as you
wish."

"May it please your highness," interposed the Gnome, who at this point
squeezed himself through Ned's legs and entered the door, "to give my
mortal friend a drop of your crystal nectar, in order that he may regain
his boyish shape again?"

The Queen Fairy looked politely inquisitive.

"You see, your highness," the Gnome went on to explain, "he has eaten
too heartily of gnome cake, and that together with a gobletful of gnome
watermelon juice, has caused him much inconvenience, as well as an
entire change of form."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the Queen called the Waterfall
Fairy, the Brook Fairy and yet another, somewhat smaller, called Violet
Water.

"Hasten," she said to them when they had assembled before her, "hasten
to make a draft of crystal nectar, that this mortal may drink and assume
once more his natural shape."

"Move off!" cried a shrill voice in Ned's ear, and, looking up, he saw a
Snapdragon, who seemed to be a sort of policeman for the fairies.

"How can you expect these Ladies-in-Waiting to fulfill their Queen's
comma