y directing the festival to hear what he said.

So the first day passed on and everybody thought it was the very finest
entertainment that ever was seen. But the second day surpassed it. The
crowds, all in scarlet, filling the gardens, looked like bright roses
amid the green leaves, and the blare of golden trumpets, the scattering
of golden coins as _largesse_, the stately processions of soldiers made
it, indeed, a marvellous show of power; and this was increased by the
arrival of ambassadors from the Shah of Persia, who had so much helped
King Humayon. They brought magnificent presents and hearty
congratulations on success. So, nothing was lacking; and at night, lit
up by red fires, the scene was one never to be forgotten. But with the
dawn everything changed! A thousand servants set to work, and in one
short half hour the garden showed green. Green carpets, green trees,
green water falling from the fountains like liquid emeralds. And
by-and-bye came green crowds, every shade of green mixing and mingling
in harmony. And inside the arched pavilion of the house of Good Fortune
were green rustlings of silk, green shimmerings of satin as three
hundred ladies of the Court, all veiled with green veils, took their
seats in a semicircle. Three hundred ladies in green all dressed alike!
Which was Queen Humeeda? _That_, it was the part of a child of four to
tell, a child who had not seen his mother for two and a half years!

The crowd outside, pale green, sage green, emerald green, leaf green,
were hushed to silence, waiting; but from every thicket of rose and
jasmine a chorus of singing birds, deftly concealed in cages behind the
leaves, filled the air as Humayon and his little son advanced to take
their places. The king was dressed in green also, a fine figure in royal
robes embroidered with a thousand allegorical designs. He took his seat
on a golden throne.

And little Prince Akbar!

He was the one spot of colour! He was the flower of the whole garden!
Dressed in rose satin of various shades, he looked indeed what
Head-nurse had called him fondly, thus adding to her string of titles,
"The Rose of the World."

And now the great moment approaches! The little fellow takes his stand
fearlessly below his father; before him the semicircle of green veiled
ladies; a hundred in the first row, a hundred in the second row, a
hundred in the third row.

But little Akbar's eyes as he stands there do not wander from row to
row. To t