sister, and they
saw him, they all three set up a cry of joy, and ran together and
hugged and kissed each other heartily; for they felt as if they had
been parted for a very long time.

At last Hilda said, 'Why, Hector, what has become of the black spot
that used to be on your chin? It is not there any more.'

'It got rubbed off against the wall of the room with the
hundred-and-one corners,' replied Hector demurely.

At that they all three laughed; but Hilda at least had tears in her
eyes.

'And look at his hair and eyes!' exclaimed Harold; 'they are brown
now, instead of black, as they used to be. What is the reason of
that?'

'It is the touch of the Golden Ivy,' said a voice behind them, which
Hilda fancied she had heard somewhere before.

The three children looked round, and saw a lady standing beside them,
dazzlingly beautiful, with a crown on her head and a smile in her
eyes. They all knew her at once, though they had never seen her before
except in their dreams. It was their Fairy Aunt.

'But you look very much like the Queen our mother,' said Hilda.

'And do I look like anyone besides her?' asked the lady, with a smile.

'Yes, you are like the Queen of the Air Spirits!' exclaimed Hilda;
'though you don't look so haughty as she did at first.'

'Anyone else?' asked the lady again, speaking in a very gruff tone,
and drawing her eyebrows together.

'Dear me! that is the way the King of the Gnomes talked,' said Hilda,
clasping her hands. 'Surely you couldn't have been him?'

'Yes, my darlings,' said the lady, sitting down and drawing the three
children to her lap, 'I am the Queen, your mother; though, by
Rumpty-Dudget's spells, I was obliged to leave you, and to be seen by
you only in your dreams at night. And I was what seemed to you the
Queen of the Air Spirits, Hilda, and the King of the Gnomes as well;
because love shows itself in many forms, and works for you above and
beneath, and both while you wake and while you sleep; but it is always
the same love in the end, and if you love one another you will find it
out at last.'

'After all,' said Hilda thoughtfully, 'I love you best as our own
mamma. And you will always be our mamma, and be with us now, won't
you?'

'Yes, my darlings,' answered the Queen, giving them all a hug and a
kiss; 'there will be no more changes or partings, for Rumpty-Dudget
and his tower are gone, and we are free.'

'But where is Tom the Cat?' cried Hector all of a sudden,