V. NO TIME TO BE LOST 154
V. THE QUEEN OF THE AIR 161
VI. THE KING OF THE GNOMES 170
VII. THE ENCHANTED FIRE 179
VIII. THE GOLDEN IVY 186

_CALLADON._

I. ABRACADABRA 197
II. THE LAW OF THE LAMP 204
III. CALLIA AND THE MIRROR 209
IV. THE OUTER ROOMS 214
V. REGENERATION 224

_THEEDA._

I. THE BOOK AND THE VASE 237
II. OSCAR INSIDE OUT 243
III. THE PEARL-SHELL'S GIFT 250
IV. THE CRAB 260
V. A STRANGER 267
VI. THE SECRET OF THE WAVES 279

YELLOW-CAP.

CHAPTER I.

AN APPANAGE OF ROYALTY.

A good many years ago--before Julius Caesar landed at Dover, in fact,
and while the architect's plans for Stonehenge were still under
consideration--England was inhabited by a civilised and prosperous
people, who did not care about travelling, and who were renowned for
their affability to strangers. The climate was warm and equable; there
were no fogs, no smoke, no railways, and no politics. The Government
was an absolute monarchy; one king, who was by birth and descent an
Englishman, lived in London all the year round; and as for London, it
was the cleanest, airiest, and most beautiful city in the whole world.

A few miles outside of the city walls lay a small village called
Honeymead. It had some fifteen or twenty thatched cottages, each with
its vegetable garden and its beehives, its hencoop and its cowshed.
Around this village fertile meadows spread down to the river banks,
bringing forth plenteous crops for the support of the honest and
thrifty husbandmen who tilled them. There was only one public-house in
the place, and the only drink to be had there was milk. A case of
drunkenness was, consequently, seldom heard of; though, on the other
hand, women, girls, and even small children might be seen lingering
about the place as well as men.

This public-house was called the Brindled Cow, and it was kept by a
young woman whose name was Rosamund. She was the prettiest maiden in
the village, as well as the most good-natured and the thriftiest;
though she had a keen tongue of her own when occasion demanded. As
might b