The stuff in the cauldron boiled up in foaming flashes of yellow and blue and red and white and silver, and sent out a sweet scent, and presently the witch poured it out into a pot and set it to cool in the doorway among the snakes. Then she said to the Queen: "Your child will have hair as golden as your crown, eyes as blue as your sapphires. The red of your rubies will lie on its lips, and its skin will be clear and pale as your pearls. Its soul will be white and sweet as your lilies, and your diamonds will be no clearer than its wits." "Oh, thank you, thank you," said the Queen, "and when will it come?" "You will find it when you get home." "And won't you have something for yourself?" asked the Queen. "Any little thing you fancy--would you like a country, or a sack of jewels?" "Nothing, thank you," said the witch. "I could make more diamonds in a day than I should wear in a year." "Well, but do let me do some little thing for you," the Queen went on. "Aren't you tired of being a witch? Wouldn't you like to be a Duchess or a Princess, or something like that?" "There is one thing I should rather like," said the witch, "but it's hard to get in my trade." "Oh, tell me what," said the Queen. "I should like some one to love me," said the witch. Then the Queen threw her arms around the witch's neck and kissed her half a hundred times. "Why," she said, "I love you better than my life! You've given me the baby--and the baby shall love you too." "Perhaps it will," said the witch, "and when the sorrow comes, send for me. Each of your fifty kisses will be a spell to bring me to you. Now, drink up your medicine, there's a dear, and run along home." So the Queen drank the stuff in the pot, which was quite cool by this time, and she went out under the fringe of snakes, and they all behaved like good Sunday-school children. Some of them even tried to drop a curtsy to her as she went by, though that is not easy when you are hanging wrong way up by your tail. But the snakes knew the Queen was friends with their mistress; so, of course, they had to do their best to be civil. When the Queen got home, sure enough there was the baby lying in the cradle with the Royal arms blazoned on it, crying as naturally as possible. It had pink ribbons to tie up its sleeves, so the Queen saw at once it was a girl. When the King knew this he tore his black hair with fury. "Oh, you silly, silly Queen!" he said. "Why didn't I marry a clever lady? Did you think I went to all the trouble and expense of sending you to a witch to get a girl? You knew well enough it was a boy I wanted--a boy, an heir, a Prince--to learn all my magic and my enchantments, and to rule the kingdom after me. I'll bet a crown--my crown," he said, "you never even thought to tell the witch what kind you wanted! Did you now?" And the Queen hung her head and had to confess that she had only asked for a child.