st as he wished
it to be. But when, at last, he declared that he did not consider my
mother to be queen at all, and that the rule really belonged to him
alone,--and when he went hovering up in the shape of an enormous fly,
with flashing eyes, and a great trunk, or snout, sticking out, all
about my mother's throne, buzzing and humming in an abominable
manner,--then she, and all the rest of her court, saw that this
malignant minister, who had come amongst us under the fine name of
Pepasilio, was none other than Pepser, the morose and gloomy King of
the Gnomes. But he had foolishly overestimated his power, as well as
the bravery of his followers. The ministers of the Air department
surrounded the queen, and fanned perfumed breezes towards her, whilst
the ministers of the Fire department rushed up and down in billows of
flame, and the singers (whose bills had been cleaned out) chanted the
most full-voiced choruses, so that the queen neither saw nor heard the
ugly Pepser, neither could she be aware of his evil-smelling breath.
Moreover, at that moment, the pheasant prince seized him with his
glittering beak, and gripped him so strenuously that he screamed with
agony and rage; and then the pheasant prince let him down to the earth
from a height of three thousand ells, so that he could not stir hand or
foot till his aunt, and crony, the great blue toad, took him on her
back, and so carried him home. Five hundred fine sprightly children
armed themselves with fly-flappers, with which they banged Pepser's
horrible followers to death, when they were still swarming about
intending to destroy all the beautiful flowers. Now, as soon as Pepser
was gone, all the black juice which he had covered everything over
with, flowed away of itself, and everything was restored, and was soon
beaming and shining, and blooming as gloriously as ever. You may
imagine that this horrid Pepser has no more power in my mother's
kingdom. But he knows that I often venture out, and he follows me
everywhere, in shapes of every kind, so that, wretched child that I am,
I often do not know where to hide myself in my flight; and that is why
I often get away from you so quickly that you cannot see what becomes
of me. Therefore things must go on just as they are; and I can assure
you that if I were to try to take you with me to my home, Pepser would
be sure to lie in wait for us, and kill us."

Christlieb wept bitterly over the danger to which the Stranger Child
mu