“Every one looked at him—startled to hear him speak like that. He stood holding up his sceptre in a magnificent attitude, and looked absolutely majestic. Cassiopeia was too much astonished to speak for a moment, but Andromeda slipped her fingers into his and laid her cheek against his shoulder; and when he bent his head to listen to her pretty coaxing in his ear, his crown tilted a trifle, and he looked like his usual, cloudy-night self. So no one was surprised to hear him say:— “‘Yes, I suppose so. But your mother needn’t go.’ “‘I’ll go,’ said some one who hadn’t spoken before. “It was Lady Moon.” (“Oh-h,” said the Others, softly, and very glad; and the Princess smiled back at them.) “The moment she spoke, the Star People felt every perplexity smoothed away, and it all became simple and plain. There wasn’t the slightest reason in the Heavens, why they should not take that lonely little baby for their own, to care for and to love. “The clouds in piled-up masses lay low on Xyntli’s mountain; and it was an easy matter for the Star People to follow Lady Moon down from level to level. When they reached the limit of the cloud-stairway, they could see once more; how right it was that they should wait—their blazing glory hidden—while Lady Moon, her lantern darkened, should slip unseen down the bare shoulder of the mountain, to the strip of forest, left like a dark finger pointing up the slope. “Ah, but think of a helpless, frightened little child—only two years and a scrap over—alone in a dark cave in that awful desolation! “How must he have felt—that little Bee Baby—when, suddenly, a soft light shone into the cave, and he looked into the face of the loveliest of ladies, who was holding her lantern so that it disclosed to her—huddled into the farthest corner of the cave—a small brown heap. Only the eyes, like a little frightened animal’s, looking out of it, showed that it was alive. “And the baby? [Illustration: HIS WONDERING EYES LOOKED FROM LADY MOON’S SHOULDER ] “When he looked into that pitying face, and saw the tender arms held out to him, his own went out in answer; and then he was held close—nestled like a young bird or a tired baby—as he was—in the shelter of that loving breast. “Then, what baby king had ever such a royal progress as that brown little child? “His wondering eyes looked from Lady Moon’s shoulder, as she carried him up the stately stairway of mass upon mass of cloud, whose lowest step was the mighty mountain, and whose highest led to the measureless Heavens! And grouped along its heights were the radiant Star People, whose splendors might have frightened him if their faces had not been so kind with loving welcome. All those of whom we have talked, and many more, assembled to welcome one little helpless child.