ts front feet.

Next moment it had backed out of the foxglove, taking the ring with it,
and had flown off, and the Princess was left alone.

If she cried a little you can hardly blame her. You wait till you find
yourself one million three hundred thousand two hundred and seventy-four
times as small as you usually are, with no means whatever of getting
back to your proper size, then you'll understand how the Princess felt.

But she was a brave Princess; so she soon stopped crying, spread her
gauzy wings, and flew across the garden and up over the marble terraces
and in at the library window of the palace.

The King was reading the account of the birthday-party in the evening
paper, and he did not notice the Princess at all till she settled on his
ear. Then he put up his hand to brush her away, for he thought she was a
fly. She dodged his hand and settled again, and shouted 'Papa!' into his
ear as loud as ever she could. And the shout was no louder than a
fly's buzzing, but, as it was close to his ear, the King heard it very
distinctly.

[Illustration: 'A black-winged monster, with hundreds and hundreds of
eyes.'--Page 350]

'Bless my soul!' said the King, sitting very bolt upright.

'Don't move, daddy,' said the tiny Princess, 'even if I tickle your ear
with my wings. I found a magic jewel in one of dear mother's cabinets,
and I made it turn me into a fairy, and now a horrid fly has buzzed off
with the jewel, and I can't get back to my right size.'

'I must be dreaming,' said the King.

'I wish you were--I mean I wish I was--but it's true. I'll settle on
your hand now, and you'll see.'

The King looked at the tiny winged thing--flower-fairy size--that
settled on his hand. And he put on his spectacles and looked again. And
then he got a magnifying-glass and looked through that.

'Yes,' he said, 'it certainly is you! What a thing to happen, and on
your birthday, too! Oh dear! oh dear!'

'It _is_ rather hard, daddy,' said the poor Princess; 'but you are so
wise and clever, you'll be able to get me back to my right size again.'

'My dear,' said the King, 'I received a thorough commercial education,
but I never learned magic. In fact, I doubt whether it is still taught
even at Oxford.'

'Daddy dear,'said the Princess shyly, 'I've read a good many books about
magic--fairy-tales they're called, you know--and----'

'Yes,' said the King, who saw at once what she meant. 'Of course, I
shall do that first thing.'