"Well," the cat answered, with a look as near a blush as a cat can come to such a thing, "you may be right. One never can tell what may happen. It is now almost on the stroke of twelve, and we must make haste. Run out to the terrace and see if the peahen has laid an egg. If she has, bring it in here to me; and be very quick!" Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, the Prince hastened to do as he was bid. He found an egg, indeed, and rushing back to the palace reached the hall just as the clock sounded the first stroke of twelve. "Break it exactly across the middle, and do it with three blows," the cat commanded. The Prince obeyed, and from the shattered fragments of the shell, just as the last stroke of twelve ceased, out stepped the Fairy Copetta, as sharp, fresh, and brisk from top to toe as if she had just been made, and not in the least as if she had found her quarters in the peahen's egg either close or confining. She shook out her petticoat with a brisk little flirt, hopped lightly down from the table, and hit the Prince a tap on the head with her cane. [Illustration] "Well," she said sharply, "how about the Blue Wizard? Do you like him as well as you thought you should?" "I don't know," stammered the poor Prince, decidedly taken aback by his godmother's sudden appearance. "Did I say I liked him? I had forgotten--I mean I don't like him at all, if you please, Godmother." "Oh!" exclaimed the old lady, mockingly, "don't you, really? Yet, if I remember rightly, you quite longed for a visit from him a while ago. Well, then, how about the giant of Bogarru and the Funny Man, both intimate friends of mine--did you like them, eh? Did you find them witty and agreeable? Did they treat you with great respect because you were a real live prince, eh?" "You know they did not," cried the Prince. "I must say, Godmother, that you have strange taste in choosing friends." "Each to his liking," responded Copetta, lightly. "I dare say, now, that you found more pleasure in that stupid jelly-fish, or that dismal brass monkey, or that crooked man,--and _he's_ a beauty, by the way!" "I did like them," replied the Prince, stoutly; "they were so good to me. Are they, too, friends of yours, Godmother?" "Why, yes," said the fairy, her bright eyes twinkling elfishly, "I think I may say that they're rather intimate with me." "I didn't know," ventured Vance, rather timidly, "but they might all be you, Godmother." "Perhaps you think," she answered tartly, "that I am a sort of living multiplication-table, or that I have as many lives as a cat. By the way, can you bound the kingdom now?" "I ought to be able to bound it," the Prince replied; "I have been quite around it on foot." "Well," returned his godmother, acidly, "I dare say it hasn't hurt you. That reminds me; have you had enough of it?"