besides, "They think we children never have a
reason or a meaning!" And the Duchess,
though the most fashionable Duchess that ever
was heard of, winked her eye.

"Alicia," said the King, one evening when
she wished him Good Night.

"Yes, Papa."

"What is become of the magic fish-bone?"

"In my pocket, Papa."

"I thought you had lost it?"

"O no, Papa!"

"Or forgotten it?'"

"No, indeed, Papa!"

And so another time the dreadful little snapping
pug-dog next door made a rush at one of
the young Princes as he stood on the steps
coming home from school, and terrified him out
of his wits, and he put his hand through a pane of
glass, and bled bled bled. When the seventeen
other young Princes and Princesses saw him
bleed bleed bleed, they were terrified out of
their wits too, and screamed themselves black
in their seventeen faces all at once. But the
Princes Alicia put her hands over all their
seventeen mouths, one after another, and
persuaded them to be quiet because of the sick
Queen. And then she put the wounded Prince's
hand in a basin of fresh cold water, while they
stared with their twice seventeen are thirty-
four put down four and carry three eyes, and
then she looked in the hand for bits of glass,
and there were fortunately no bits of glass there.
And then she said to two chubby-legged Princes
who were sturdy though small, "Bring me
in the Royal rag-bag; I must snip and stitch
and cut and contrive." So those two young
Princes tugged at the Royal rag-bag and
lugged it in, and the Princess Alicia sat down
on the floor with a large pair of scissors and a
needle and thread, and snipped and stitched
and cut and contrived, and made a bandage
and put it on, and it fitted beautifully, and so
when it was all done she saw the King her Papa
looking on by the door.

"Alicia."

"Yes, Papa."

"What have you been doing?"

"Snipping stitching cutting and contriving,
Papa."

"Where is the magic fish-bone?"

"In my pocket, Papa."

"I thought you had lost it?"

"O no, Papa."

"Or forgotten it?"

"No, indeed, Papa!"

After that, she ran up-stairs to the Duchess
and told her what had passed, and told her the
secret over again, and the Duchess shook her
flaxen curls and laughed with her rosy lips.

Well! and so another time the baby fell
under the grate. The seventeen young Princes
and Princesses were used to it, for they were
almost always falling under the grate or down
the stairs, but the baby was not used to it yet,
and it gave him a swelled face and a black eye.
The way the poor little darling came to tumble
was, that he slid out of the Princess Alicia's lap
just as she was sitting in a great coarse apron
that quite smothered her, in front of the kitchen,
fire, beginning to peel the turnips for the broth
for dinner; and the way she came to be doing
that was, that the King's cook had run away
that morning with her own true love who was
a very tall but very tipsy soldier. Then, the
seventeen young Princes and Princesses, who
cried at everything that happened, cried and
roared. But the Princess Alicia (who couldn't
help crying a little herself) quietly called to
them to be still, on account of not throwing
back the Queen up-stairs, who was fast
getting well, and said, "Hold your tongues you
wicked little monkeys, every one of you, while
I examine baby!" Then she examined baby,
and found that he hadn't broken anything,
and she held cold iron to his poor dear eye,
and smoothed his poor dear face, and he
presently fell asleep in her arms. Then,
she said to the seventeen Princes and
Princesses, "I am afraid to lay him down yet,
lest he should wake and feel pain, be good and
you shall all be cooks." They jumped for joy
when they heard that, and began making
themselves cooks' caps out of old newspapers. So
to one she gave the salt box, and to one she
gave the barley, and to one she gave the herbs,
and to one she gave the turnips, and to one she
gave the carrots, and to one she gave the onions,
and to one she gave the spice-box, till they were
all cooks, and all running about at work, she
sitting in the middle smothered in the great
coarse apron, nursing baby. By-and-by the
broth was done, and the baby woke up smiling
like an angel, and was trusted to the sedatest
Princess to hold, while the other Princes and
Princesses were squeezed into a far-off corner
to look at the Princess Alicia turning out the
saucepan-full of broth, for fear (as they were
always getting into trouble) they should get
splashed and scalded. When the broth came
tumbling out, steaming beautifully, and smelling
like a nosegay good to eat, they clapped their
hands. That made the baby clap his hands; and
that, and his looking as if he had a comic toothache,
made all the Princes and Princesses
laugh. So the Princess Alicia said, "Laugh and
be good, and after dinner we will make him
a nest on the floor in a corner, and he shall
sit in his nest and see a dance of eighteen
cooks." That delighted the young Princes and
Princesses, and they ate up all the broth,
and washed up all the plates and dishes, and
cleared away, and pushed the table into a corner,
and then they in their cooks' caps, and the
Princess Alicia in the smothering coarse apron
that belonged to the cook that had run away
with her own true love that was the very tall
but very tipsy soldier, danced a dance of
eighteen cooks before the angelic baby, who
forgot his swelled face and his black eye, and
crowed with joy.

And so then, once more the Princess Alicia
saw King Watkins the First, her father, standing
in the doorway looking on, and he said:

"What have you been doing, Alicia?"

"Cooking and contriving, Papa."

"What else have you been doing, Alicia?"