which hides the fairies from mortal sight; but the fairies saw
the two girls walking arm in arm through the wood.

Blanche stooped to gather a splendid crimson foxglove, which she shook
gently, saying,

"The bells shall ring
For the fairy king;
Ding, dong, bell!
Ding, dong, bell!"

But, alas! as she shook it, no fewer than seven little fairy pages fell
to the ground. They were not much hurt, but they were very indignant at
being knocked about in that manner; also the feathers in their caps were
much ruffled.

They sprang to their feet feeling very angry, especially as the other
fairies were laughing.

"We are the Queen's pages,
And very great our rage is!"

they shouted.

And then, as they looked more carefully at one another and saw how
tossed and tumbled were their pretty suits of embroidered white velvet,
they burst out crying, saying--

"We are not fit to be seen
By her Majesty the Queen;
Our clothes are all blue and green,
Who will wash and make them clean?"

"I will," said the Fairy Queen; "I saw it all, and I am very angry.

My pages shall not be
Treated so shamefully!"

And her face grew as red as a peony.

But Blanche and Belinda knew nothing of all this; they had not any idea
that the fairies were in the wood.

Blanche had just thrown down the foxglove, for suddenly there issued out
of every flower clusters of bees, that buzzed and hummed and made a
dense cloud around the two little sisters until they could not see one
another.

II.

And then--

Why, suddenly all the bees disappeared as quickly as they had come, and
all was sunshine and brightness again; and Belinda was not stung, though
she looked at her arms and hands, and felt her forehead and cheeks and
neck, expecting to be covered with great smarting lumps. Instead of
which, she had never been freer from pain; and the world around had
never looked so beautiful as it did to-day, with so many butterflies of
divers colours, and great green dragon-flies, that she wondered where
they all came from. The wood-path, too, grew more lovely, and patches of
blue sky appeared through the branches of the trees.

All at once she cried out--

"Blanche! Blanche!"

For Blanche was nowhere to be seen; and though she hunted in and out
among the trees and bushes, she could not find her. No one answered,
except the echoes repeating, "Blanche! Blanche! where are you?"

[Illustration: "WALKING ARM IN ARM."]

And then