attendant had just
deposited a small chocolate eclair.

"Where's my piece of strawberry-tart?" she repeated.

The Queen rose. "I am very sorry, Madam Malvolia," said she in her
sweetest voice, "but the strawberry-tart has given out."

"Hoity-toity," answered Malvolia rudely; "you mean that you only baked
enough for your own personal friends."

At this several guests cried, "Sh! Sh!" and the King began to look
worried.

"We will send for some at once," announced His Majesty.

"Oh yes,--strawberry-tart baked by the Queen's own hands for her own
dear friends," said Malvolia sneeringly; "but for me, a fairy of age and
distinction, an ordinary, low baker's eclair. The Kingdom of the Black
Mountains has been deliberately insulted in my person!"

"No, no, no, no!" cried the King and the Queen. "We assure you, madam,
that it was a simple mischance."

"Pish and tush!" replied Malvolia, who, like a great many people,
secretly enjoyed feeling herself aggrieved. "I consider the affair an
affront, a deliberate affront. And you shall pay dear for this
humiliation," she screamed, quickly losing control of her temper. "Every
time the Prince sneezes something shall change until--"

At this very moment, alas, a northeast wind blew gustily through the
open windows of the hall, shaking the tapestries from the walls, and
carrying away the last of Malvolia's sentence. The angry fairy turned
herself into a great black raven and flew, cawing hoarsely, over the
heads of the banqueters and out of the window with the wind.

A baby's cry was heard, and the King and the Queen rushed panic-stricken
to where their little son lay in his cradle on a raised platform at the
head of the hall. The little Prince's fat, pink face was twisted into
dreadful lines; he opened his mouth wide several times and half closed
it again; then, opening it wider than ever, he sneezed a terrible
sneeze.

There came a loud clap of thunder. When the confusion was over, the
Court Astrologer was found to have turned into an eight-day clock, with
a sun, moon, and stars arrangement, a planetary indicator, and a
calendar calculated for two thousand years. The banquet ended rather
gloomily, although the gifts of the other fairies, such as health,
wealth, and beauty, managed to make everyone a little more cheerful.

When the guests were gone, the King and Queen sent for Doctor Pill, the
court physician, to consult him in regard to the measures which ought to
be take