“Now, my dears, it seemed to me that I ceased reading and I lived in the story, and saw and felt the rest. I saw a crowd assembled around an empty space of great magnitude, and I saw the king and his courtiers round him, robed in purple with a golden crown. I knew we were all there to see the Sorrowful; and first I saw the figure of a man. Slowly he came, and he was clad in black velvet, wearing his hair long, with a pointed beard. And all the people watched his sorrowful countenance. ‘Deeply as you suffered,’ my heart said within me, ‘you cannot deem yourself to be the highest.’ But no word was said. And while we all watched him, he passed out of sight waveringly, as if he were no real person in the flesh. “Then I dreamed the heralds blew their trumpets, and the crowd moved across the scene. This time I saw the figure of a woman, and, dear heart, when I looked upon her my spirit was like to faint. “‘This is Sorrow herself,’ I kept saying in my dream. ‘Yes, this must be Sorrow.’ And I saw others thought the same as I, for the crowd looked upward. But the stars were firm, and the king asked, ‘Are there any more to appear?’ “‘There are no more,’ answered the courtiers; but I saw a woman approach the throne. “‘There is one more, and you must see him,’ she cried; ‘there is one more.’ “The courtiers would have thrust her aside, but the king said, ‘Let all those appear, that have suffered.’ “Then it seemed to me that I was looking over a vast sight of country, a wide view, such as there is from the Windmill Hill at home. And there in the air I saw lying, and yet not falling, a naked child. “I knew it was Christ I was seeing--I knew it was Christ. And while I was just standing looking, all the stars fell from heaven in a shower of golden rain.” There was silence, and the children watched a bevy of sparks race up the wide chimney, the laggards among them creeping glowingly, among the black soot at the chimney back. Then the old woman said:-- “That was a good dream; but I have had others that were not so good.” “Tell us!” said the children, “tell us!” And the old woman began the “Story of the Five Queens.” “There was once a king who had five queens, and he took to himself yet another queen, and this woman was proud and cruel. She would not brook rivals, wishing to reign alone. So she sought out the ancient laws of that country, among which she knew she would find something to fit her mind. For in these laws it had been written, that where the king ceased to love his queens, those queens must die. “And now in my dream the story grew around me, and I lived within it, as is the custom in my dreams. I heard and saw the people speaking and moving of whom I tell. “I was in a darkened chamber, silver lamps hanging from a low ceiling, the air heavy with sweet essences, and I was one of the queens.