f her, like the rude and spiteful fellow that
he was, he sneered:

"She's not brought her umbrella!"

But Water, who was really quite witty and who knew that she was the
stronger of the two, chaffed him pleasantly and said, with a glance at
his glowing nose:

"I beg your pardon?... I thought you might be speaking of a great red
nose I saw the other day!..."

The others began to laugh and poke fun at Fire, whose face was always
like a red-hot coal. Fire angrily jumped to the ceiling, keeping his
revenge for later. Meanwhile, the Cat went up to Water, very
cautiously, and paid her ever so many compliments on her dress. I need
hardly tell you that she did not mean a word of it; but she wished to
be friendly with everybody, for she wanted their votes, to carry out
her plan; and she was anxious at not seeing Bread, because she did not
want to speak before the meeting was complete:

"What can he be doing?" she mewed, time after time.

"He was making an endless fuss about choosing his dress," said the
Dog. "At last, he decided in favour of a Turkish robe, with a scimitar
and a turban."

[Illustration: They all looked at her with a bewildered air. They
understood that it was a solemn moment.]

The words were not out of his mouth, when a shapeless and ridiculous
bulk, clad in all the colours of the rainbow, came and blocked the
narrow door of the hall. It was the enormous stomach of Bread, who
filled the whole opening. He kept on knocking himself, without knowing
why; for he was not very clever and, besides, he was not yet used to
moving about in human beings' houses. At last, it occurred to him
to stoop; and, by squeezing through sideways, he managed to make his
way into the hall.

It was certainly not a triumphal entry, but he was pleased with it all
the same:

"Here I am!" he said. "Here I am! I have put on Blue-beard's finest
dress.... What do you think of this?"

The Dog began to frisk around him: he thought Bread magnificent! That
yellow velvet costume, covered all over with silver crescents,
reminded Tylo of the delicious horse-shoe rolls which he loved; and
the huge, gaudy turban on Bread's head was really very like a fairy
bun!

"How nice he looks!" he cried. "How nice he looks!"

Bread was shyly followed by Milk. Her simple mind had made her prefer
her cream dress to all the finery which the Fairy suggested to her.
She was really a model of humility.

Bread was beginning to talk about the dresses of