"How do you do, Godmother?" said the Princess, and she sat up in bed and courtesied. Which is a very difficult trick, indeed, and it is not every Princess who can do it. Her godmother was so delighted that she leaned over and kissed her. "That is the second time I have kissed you," she said. "When I go, I will kiss you again, and you had better save the three of them, for they will be useful when you go out into the world. And, my dear, it is high time that you were going out." Then the Little Princess was overjoyed, but she only nodded her head wisely and said: "I know, the world is as big as the whole Garden, and wider than the wall. But I can never go out, for the gates are always locked." "If you do not go now," said the fairy, "you will have to go later, and that might not be so well. And you should not argue with me, for I am older than you will ever be, and your godmother, besides. Now kiss me, for I must be going." So she flew away, about her other affairs, for she was a very busy old lady indeed. In the morning the Princess went to breakfast with the King and the Queen. "Mother," she said, "it is high time that I went out into the world!" The Queen was so startled that she dropped her egg on the floor and the King was red as a beet with anger. "Tut! Tut!" he shouted. "What nonsense is this?" "My fairy godmother was here last night," said the Princess, "and she told me all about it. I will go this morning, please, if I may." "Nonsense!" roared the King. "You will do no such thing!" wailed the Queen. "There could have been no one here," said the King, "for the gates were all locked." "Who told you that you had a fairy godmother?" asked the Queen. And there was an end of that. But that night, after the Princess had said her prayers and crept into bed, she heard her godmother calling to her from the Garden, so she slipped on her cloak and stole out into the moonlight. There was no one to be seen, so she pattered along in her little bare feet until she came to the gate in the wall. While she was hesitating whether or not to run back to her little white bed, the gates of triple brass opened as easily as if her godmother had oiled them, and the Little Princess passed through the copper gates, and the iron gate, and out into fairyland. But if you ask me why she saw the guards at the gates no more than they saw her, I can only tell you that I do not know, and you will have to be satisfied with that. As for the Princess, she was as happy as a duck in a puddle. As she danced along through the forests, the flowers broke from their stems to join her, the trees dropped golden fruit into her very hands, and the little brook which runs through fairyland left its course, and followed her, singing. And all the while, her godmother was coming down behind her, close at hand, to see that she came to no harm; but the Princess did not know that.