"I’ll make just a short flight at first," she said, and gave a little jump, and in a moment she flew right over a rose bush and came down softly on the turf on its further side, quite like a not too timid pigeon that has to make a little flight from before a horse’s feet. "Oh, come, that was a success," she said to herself. "And it really is true. Well, I’ll just practise a little before I start to see the world." So she flew over several trees, gradually going higher and higher, until at last she caught a glimpse of the red town roofs, and then, in a swift moment’s rush, she flew over the high white wall and alighted in the road that bordered it. "Hullo!" a voice said before she had got used to the new sensation of being out in the world. "Hullo! where did you drop from?" "I didn’t drop—I flew," the Queen said severely; and she looked at the man. He was stretched on the ground, leaning his back against the wall, and basking in the hot sunlight that fell on him. He was very ragged and very dirty, and he had neither shoes nor stockings, By his side was a basket in which, over white paper frills, nodded the heads of young ferns. "Why, who are you?" the Queen said. And then her eyes fell on his bare feet. They reminded her of what the Regent had said that morning. "Oh, you must be the poor," she said, "and you want my stockings." "I don’t know about your stockings, lady," the man said; "but if you’ve got any old clothes to spare, I could give you some nice pots of flowers for them." The Queen said, "Why, what good would that do you?" And the man answered, "I should sell them and get some money. I’m fearfully hungry." "Why don’t you have something to eat, then?" the Queen said. And the man replied, "Because I haven’t got any money to buy it with." "Why don’t you take it, then?" "Because it would be stealing, and stealing’s wicked; besides, I should be sent to prison for it." "I don’t understand quite what you mean," the Queen said. "But come with me somewhere where we can get some food, and you shall have as much as you like." The fern-seller arose with alacrity. "There’s a shop near here where they sell some delicious honey-cakes." "I can’t make it out," the Queen said to herself. "If he’s hungry he can’t be contented; and yet the Regent said every one was contented in the land, because of his being Regent. He must have been mistaken, or else this man must be one of the traitors." And aloud she said, "Is there a bill of attainder out against you?" The beggar shook his head. "I guess not," he said. "Tradesmen won’t let the likes of me run up bills." It was a remark the Queen could not understand at all. They crossed the market-place that lay before the palace door. "There’s no market to-day because the people are all afraid the revolution isn’t over yet." "Oh, but it is," the Queen said; "I made the Lord Blackjowl Regent to-day." The beggar looked at her with a strange expression; but the Queen continued—