d seized it by the heel; but he soon let it go again, for
a sharp, tingling pain ran up his arm to his shoulder, making him roar
out pretty loudly.

The slipper, as soon as it was released, spun round two or three times,
then, planting its heel on the ground and pointing its toe in the air,
it gave a spring and was out of sight in a moment.

"Where has it gone to?" was the cry of them all. They looked everywhere
for it, but did not find it. They shouted in chorus, "Come back, fairy
slipper, come back!" but no slipper came, and they were forced to go
home to their pretty houses without having found it, much to the regret
of little Teresa, who was near crying with vexation at having lost the
sparkling plaything.

They were all tired by when they reached their homes, and some of the
younger ones were very cross also, for their little legs were tired from
chasing the slipper, and they began crying for their mammas, so that the
poor Nomen had work enough to get them all to bed and soothe them to
sleep.

Now I cannot tell you whether these little folks would have continued
happy and contented on Child Island, and never have wished to leave it
for any other place, if they had had their mothers and fathers with
them. But not having them, there was something wanting, and by the end
of three weeks, or thereabouts, they were all heartily tired of being
away from home. Yet how to get back there was a difficulty that not even
wise Master Alphonse could solve. They had no boat to take them from the
island, and even if they had had one they would not have known how to
manage it, nor in which direction to guide it, as they were quite
ignorant of the whereabouts of Noviland.

So matters grew from worse to worse on the island, the elder children
getting more discontented and the younger ones more fretful, when one
day they were altogether on the lawn in front of the palace. The big
ones were moodily walking about, plucking the flowers and listlessly
pulling them to pieces, or throwing them away as soon as plucked; the
little ones, cross as two sticks, as nurses sometimes say, were getting
into all sorts of mischief. One had lost her shoe, and was whimpering
because she could not find it; a little boy had had his finger stung by
a bee, and was roaring lustily in consequence; Teresa had fallen full
length, with arms all bare, into a bramble bush, where she lay moaning
piteously.

"What are the children making that row for?" cried Ph