"Now since we are here safe and sound," said the Enchanted Banjo, "it is
our first duty to go to see the Fairy leader, the good Queen Zulena. I
am sure you will say there was never so beautiful and good a queen in
all the world. You may drive us to the royal court of the Fairies, if
you please, Coachman."
So the coachman cracked his whip, the bumblebees again champed at their
bits and snorted, then broke into a gallop that fairly made the little
coach fly up the main street to the Royal Court of the Fairy city of
Almalena.
The coach pulled up under the wide porte-cochère and as Zuzu and Lulu
arose from their seats there came out to meet them many servants who
aided them to alight and ushered them into the Royal Court of the Fairy
Queen Zulena. This was in the finest palace of gold and silver and
jewels which can be imagined. Here presently they saw the Fairy Queen.
She was a very beautiful queen, this ruler of the secret Valley of the
Fairies. This Zuzu and Lulu saw as she arose from her throne to meet
them. She seemed about as tall as Lulu, although it is hard to tell just
how tall any person is in the Fairy country, where measurements are not
the same as with us. She was robed in white and silver, and wore a crown
of shining little diamonds which glittered beautifully. Her throne was
about as tall as a library chair, and was placed on a little platform
raised a distance above the floor. The arms of the throne were richly
carved and about the back and along the arms were set many great red
stones which made a warm light. Around the foot of this throne fell the
folds of the Queen's garments, and as she rose and swept back these long
robes there stepped out, from recesses in the wall, one at each side of
the throne, two pages, a boy and a girl, of the same height and size and
expression. Zuzu and Lulu looked at these in wonder and realized that
they also were Twins. These twin pages carefully took up the robes of
the Queen and stood at the edge of the platform. As Zuzu and Lulu gazed
at these pages, to their great surprise they observed that they had hair
of malazite blue and corazine green, just as they themselves had; only
in the case of the pages, the boy, whose name they learned was Fofo, had
the blue hair, and the girl, whose name was Fifi, had green, these
colors being the reverse of those in their own case.
The Queen stepped down from her beautiful throne and caught Lulu and
Zuzu in her arms. "My dear children!" said she. "My dear children, how
glad I am to see you! And here, too, is my good Banjo, that used to play
for us long ago, before we lost it. Ah! I see these new friends of mine
have the royal malazite and the corazine hair, and they are the images
of yourselves, my dear pages, Fofo and Fifi! These are royal children
who have come to visit us, and I am sure all this is as much as any
Fairy Queen could ask. I hope that my new friends will shake hands with
these my pages, and that you all will be very good friends."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account