All three nodded. "We know a verse or two," Annet answered. "Mother was always singing it when she rocked Matthew Henry to sleep, and sometimes we get her to sing as much as she can remember for a treat." "But she can only remember five or six verses," said Linnet; "and her voice is not beautiful like yours." Annet and Matthew Henry protested. Their mother's was a beautiful voice; one of the most beautiful in the world. "But not beautiful like hers," Linnet persisted. "I mean that it's quite different." They admitted this--so much their loyalty allowed them. "And I like the end of the song best," Linnet went on, "because it's cheerfuller. It goes on 'At daybreak she dressed her....'" But for a moment or two, though she felt the children's eyes fastened on her expectantly, Vashti did not resume the song. Those same expectant eyes were open windows through which she looked into the past, as into a house tenanted by ghosts. Through Annet's, through Linnet's, she saw familiarly, recognising the dim children that played within and beyond the shadow of the blinds. But the child Matthew Henry's frightened her. She and Ruth had lost a brother once. He had died in infancy, a scrap of childhood, almost forgotten.... Yes, Matthew Henry's eyes too had a playroom behind them; and there too a shadowy child played at hide and seek. Her voice shook a little as she picked up the old song-- At daybreak she dressed her, Her wet hair she wound, When she saw a lithe shepherd, Stood under the mound. He stood among the wreckage With crook and with hound, Alone in the morning, That most did astound. "O tell to me, lithe shepherd, What king owns this ground?" "No king, ma'am, but Zenobia, A Queen of renown." "Lithe lad, she is shipwrecked; Myself saw her drown." "Then 'tis you are Queen of Saaron If you will step down. "I have sheep, goat, and cattle And a clear three pound, If you'll mate with me and settle In goods we will abound." "Well-a-way!" sighed Zenobia, "I have lost Carthage town, But I like this lithe shepherd So handsome and brown. "If I marry you," said Zenobia, "Farewell to renown! If I marry you," said Zenobia, "I mate with a clown. But I'll marry you for all that, With a down-derry-down!" "And," said Linnet, as the song concluded, "they married and had twelve children--six boys and six girls. Mother told me about it." But Matthew Henry turned to the singer gravely. "Is it true?" he asked. "And are you really Queen Zenobia?" "Come and see," said Vashti, rising. "The sands are bare between us and Brefar, and if Linnet is brave enough we will take a boat and she shall be shown the cave where Jan's father caught the mermaid." "But we must get back again," objected Annet. "I will see that you get back again." "The sands may not be safe."