oks about and
some benches with cushions on them and many
cushions on the ground. The young_ PRINCES _are
sitting or lying at their ease. One is playing
"Home, Sweet Home" on a harp. The_
SERVANT--_an old man_--_is standing in the
background_.

_1st Prince_: Here, Gillie, will you please take off
my shoe and see what there is in it that is pressing
on my heel.

_Servant_: (_Taking it off and examining it_.) I
see nothing.

_1st Prince_: Oh, yes, there is something; I have
felt it all the morning. I have been thinking this
long time of taking the shoe off, but I waited for
you.

_Servant_: All I can find is a grain of poppy seed.

_1st Prince_: That is it of course--it was enough
to hurt my skin.

_2nd Prince_: Gillie, there is a mayfly tickling
my cheek. Will you please brush it away.

_Servant_: I will and welcome. (_Fans it off_.)

_3rd Prince_: Just give me, please, that book
that is near my elbow. I cannot reach to it without
taking my hand off my cheek.

_Servant_: I wouldn't wish you to do that.
(_Gives him book_.)

_4th Prince_: Gillie, I think, I am nearly sure,
there is a feather in this cushion that has the quill
in it yet. I feel something hard.

_Servant_: Give it to me till I will open it and
make a search.

_4th Prince_: No, wait a while till I am not lying
on it. I will put up with the discomfort till then.

_5th Prince_: Would it give you too much trouble,
Gillie, when you waken me in the morning, to
come and call me three times, so that I can have
the joy of dropping off again?

_Servant_: Why wouldn't I? And there is a
thing I would wish to know. There will be a
supper laid out here this evening for the Dowager
Messengers that are coming to the Island, and I
would wish to provide for yourselves whatever
food would be pleasing to you.

_1st Prince_: It is too warm for eating. All I
will ask is a few grapes from Spain.

_2nd Prince_: A mouthful of jelly in a silver
spoon ...or in the shape of a little castle with
towers. When will the Lady Messengers be here?

_Servant_: Not before the fall of day.

_2nd Prince_: The time passes so quietly and
peaceably it does not feel like a year and a day since
they came here before.

_Servant_: No wonder the time to pass easy and
quiet where you are, with comfort all around you,
and nothing to mark its course, and every season
feeling the same as another, within the glass walls
and the crystal roof of this place. And the old
Qu