The idlers laughed, and the other two vagabonds sang out: “Ballads or buttons! Buy, master blackface! Ballads or buttons!” “What will you give for a button?” shouted the first, and he held up in my view a large ivory button, the identical one, beyond a doubt, which was missing from the doublet. “A fig for a button!” I said, and held out one of the figs in my hand. “A button for a fig! A bargain!” cried the first ballad singer, and taking the fig from me placed the button in my hand. The idlers laughed at this nonsense, and we turned to go. “Farewell, farewell!” cried the first ballad singer. “What do we say to the breaker of hearts who forgets her promise to marry?” The other two laughed, and began to sing. We moved on down the road, followed by the tailors marching by fours, and as we departed we heard behind us the voices of the blind ballad singers for the last time, shouting out a song in this wise: “She said that she wanted to marry all three, Fiddle-de-dee! Fiddle-de-dee! And it broke her heart that it could not be, But ‘Oh!’ said she, ‘you must all agree On one who shall be the fortunate he, For only one can I marry!’ But oh! she would not wait to see, And oh! she would not tarry, For all that she said to the artless three Was nothing but fiddle-de-dee, Ah me! Was nothing but fiddle-de-dee!” [Illustration] THE FOURTH NIGHT THE RAGPICKER AND THE PRINCESS _The Queen said, “Domino!” very sweetly, and smiled at the Second Lady in Waiting, who was much chagrined._ _“I don’t see how I could have been so stupid,” said the Second Lady in Waiting._ _“Indeed, my dear,” said the Queen, kindly, “I don’t think you were nearly so stupid as usual.”_ _At this moment the Princess Dorobel, with Prince Bilbo and their son Bojohn, and the latter’s friend Bodkin, came in from the throne room, and the Princess Dorobel, standing behind the Queen’s chair, said:_ _“Mother, we are going to hear a story, and Bojohn insists that you--”_ _“Yes, grandmother!” said Bojohn. “We are going to ask Solario for another story, and you must come along too.”_ _“Dear me,” said the Queen. “I must put away the dominoes first.”_ _She stacked them neatly in the box, one by one, and when this was done she rose, and Bojohn took her arm and led her through the throne room where the King was engaged at chess with the Lord Chamberlain._ _“My dear,” said the Queen to the King, “you had better come with us. We are going to--”_ _“It makes no difference to me,” said the King. “You can have the bishop if you want him. But I’ve got your queen! How do you like that? It’s your move! Go on, why don’t you move?”_ _“It’s no use, grandmother,” said Bojohn. “Come along.”_ _They left the King at his game, and proceeded to the room of Solario the Tailor in the tower. They were admitted by Solario himself._