And she became more astonished than ever, for now she saw the
little green island again, but far from the place where she first saw
it. It was sailing slowly toward the southern end of the lake, and the
silver birch was its sail.

As soon as Beate reached home she found Anne, the nurse, and told her
what she had seen.

Anne knew all about the floating island: it had been on the lake for
many years, she said. But there were many strange things about it. One
thing she would tell, and that was, that if anyone stood on the floating
island and took a loon's egg out of the nest and wished for something,
that wish would come true, if the egg was put safely back into the nest
again. If you wished to become a Princess of England, your wish would
indeed be fulfilled, said old Anne. But there was one more thing to
notice: you must not talk about it to a living soul.

"Not even to Father and Mother?" asked Beate.

"No," said Anne, "not to a living soul."

Beate could think of nothing but the island all that evening, and when
she had closed her eyes she could dream of nothing else all night.

Just as soon as Beate got up in the morning she begged her father to row
her and Marie and Louise out to the floating island, when they came to
visit her in the afternoon, and that he promised.

But he also asked how she had happened to think of that, and what she
wanted there. Beate thought first that she would tell him everything,
but then she remembered Anne's words, and said only that she wished to
go out there because the little green island was so pretty.

"Yes, indeed, it is pretty, and you shall see a loon's nest too," said
the father.

Then Beate's face grew red, and the tears came to her eyes, for she knew
well enough about the loon's nest and about the eggs.

In the afternoon the father took the three little girls down to the
lake. Beate's friends thought this was the loveliest place they had ever
seen, and they begged the father to stop and get some of the pretty
water-lilies for them. But Beate was longing for the floating island.

The father rowed close up to the island and around it, and when he came
to the other side the loon plunged out of the reeds into the water and
was gone.

"There is the loon's nest," said the father.

What joy! The loon's nest was on the very edge of the little tiny
island, hidden among the grasses, and in the nest were two big
grayish-brown eggs, with black spots, larger than any goose egg