t, poor fellow, because he has lost his
head, you see. If you have lost your head you cannot be expected to
make anything except poetry."

"Have you lost your head, too, may I ask?" said the Prince, as politely
as he could put such an awkward question.

"For the time being I have no head to lose," answered the voice. "That
is how I happened to be inventing a song just as you came by. Are you
sure there is nothing else you would like better? A nightmare, for
instance, or a thunder-storm?"

The Prince was sure he would like nothing better; and the voice in the
birch tree sang him the following song, very softly:

"Here I've come as I was bidden
To seek the dolly you have hidden--
The dolly with the yellow hair,
With cheeks so pink and eyes so fair,
With hands that move and feet that stand--
The doll that came from Fairyland.

"Do you pretend you've never seen her,
The dainty Lady Emmelina?
I pray you let the drawbridge down,
I'm ten years old and I can frown!
I mean to find her--here's my hand!
I want the doll from Fairyland.

"The song I'm singing--let me mention--
Is not a song of my invention;
It comes like steamboats sometimes do,
Like real balloons and cannons too;
It comes like all that's real and grand,
All the way from Fairyland!"

"Why," said Prince Perfection, "one would almost think you had made up
the song on purpose for me!"

What the birch tree thought about it has never been known, for when the
little Prince looked up again it had gone away to nowhere at all.

The soldier without a head let the drawbridge down, when he heard the
song that had come all the way from Fairyland. The Prince did not stop
to thank him, but hastened into the fort and looked round anxiously for
the Lady Emmelina. He had very little difficulty in finding her,
however, for she occupied nearly the whole of the ground floor. She
was sitting up against the wall, supported on one side by an ambulance
waggon, and on the other by a camp-fire which, strange to say, had not
even singed her elegant fan, although it burned with the brightest of
red and yellow flames.

"There you are! Will you come home with me?" said the Prince, rather
nervously; for he was not much bigger than she was, now, and he was a
little afraid lest she should have unpleasant recollections of the neat
round hole lined with green moss. To his relief, she seemed quite glad
to see him.

"To be sure I will,"