st make haste. Run
out to the terrace and see if the peahen has laid an egg. If she has,
bring it in here to me; and be very quick!"

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, the Prince hastened to do as he was
bid. He found an egg, indeed, and rushing back to the palace reached the
hall just as the clock sounded the first stroke of twelve.

"Break it exactly across the middle, and do it with three blows," the
cat commanded.

The Prince obeyed, and from the shattered fragments of the shell, just
as the last stroke of twelve ceased, out stepped the Fairy Copetta, as
sharp, fresh, and brisk from top to toe as if she had just been made,
and not in the least as if she had found her quarters in the peahen's
egg either close or confining. She shook out her petticoat with a brisk
little flirt, hopped lightly down from the table, and hit the Prince a
tap on the head with her cane.

[Illustration]

"Well," she said sharply, "how about the Blue Wizard? Do you like him as
well as you thought you should?"

"I don't know," stammered the poor Prince, decidedly taken aback by his
godmother's sudden appearance. "Did I say I liked him? I had
forgotten--I mean I don't like him at all, if you please, Godmother."

"Oh!" exclaimed the old lady, mockingly, "don't you, really? Yet, if I
remember rightly, you quite longed for a visit from him a while ago.
Well, then, how about the giant of Bogarru and the Funny Man, both
intimate friends of mine--did you like them, eh? Did you find them witty
and agreeable? Did they treat you with great respect because you were a
real live prince, eh?"

"You know they did not," cried the Prince. "I must say, Godmother, that
you have strange taste in choosing friends."

"Each to his liking," responded Copetta, lightly. "I dare say, now, that
you found more pleasure in that stupid jelly-fish, or that dismal brass
monkey, or that crooked man,--and _he's_ a beauty, by the way!"

"I did like them," replied the Prince, stoutly; "they were so good to
me. Are they, too, friends of yours, Godmother?"

"Why, yes," said the fairy, her bright eyes twinkling elfishly, "I think
I may say that they're rather intimate with me."

"I didn't know," ventured Vance, rather timidly, "but they might all be
you, Godmother."

"Perhaps you think," she answered tartly, "that I am a sort of living
multiplication-table, or that I have as many lives as a cat. By the way,
can you bound the kingdom now?"

"I ought to be able to bou