and after they had
gone the Queen heard the childish voice again from the bed.

"I want to see Aunt Amanda."

The Queen went to him, and stood beside the bed. He looked up at her.

"You aren't Aunt Amanda," he said. "I want to see Aunt Amanda."

"I think that was my name once," said the Queen. "Will you talk to me?"

He looked at her again, and she saw that he did not know her.

"My farver sent me," he said. "Mr. Toby has gone to the barber-shop, and
my farver he wants a pound of Cage-Roach Mitchner."

"Mr. Toby is here in the palace now, and I'm sure he--"

"I don't know about any palace. I can't wait long. My farver told me to
hurry."

The Queen said no more, and Freddie appeared to go to sleep. The night
came on, and the Queen still sat by his side. It grew very late; her
children had long since gone to bed, and even the King was asleep in his
own apartments. The palace was silent, and there was scarcely a light
anywhere in the great place except the light of a taper on a table in
Freddie's room. The Queen was bending forward, watching the face on the
pillow. The eyes were closed, the lips were together, and there was no
sign of breathing. She knew that it could not be much longer; she buried
her face in her hands and wept bitterly.

A gentle tap upon the door aroused her. She rose and admitted Mr. Toby
and Mr. Punch, Thomas the Inferior, and Mr. Hanlon.

"Quick, ma'am," said Mr. Hanlon. "There's not a minute to be lost. If
you plase, I'll ask ye to put on yer bonnet in a hurry, ma'am. We're off
on a journey, and the poor sick young lad's coming along with us. If
you'll just be in a hurry with the bonnet, ma'am!"

The Queen, scarcely realizing what she was doing, left the room, and
went first to the nursery, where she bent over her three sleeping
children and kissed them each, and murmured a loving good-bye above
them, as if she were going to leave them; and for a long, long time she
gazed at each rosy face, as if to fix it in her memory forever.

When she returned to the room, wearing a shawl over her head and
shoulders, she was startled to see that the sick youth was sitting
upright in a chair, thickly wrapped in blankets. His round childlike
eyes were wide open, and to her surprise a faint smile seemed to hover
about his lips.

She looked at the others. Each held, in his hand an empty hour-glass.

"Plase to get your hour-glass, ma'am," said Mr. Hanlon, "and Freddie's
too."

Freddie's hour-glass