“You are a dear little girl,” she said, “and you shall play with my goose if you want to!” Then she looked stern again. “Just the same,” she added, “you as well as the others must learn your lesson and be punished. All this time you have not believed in me, nor loved me, nor been _my_ little girl, so you must be punished as severely as the rest.” “What are you going to do to us?” demanded Meg, defiantly. “A little while ago,” said Mother Goose, “you—little girl with the fair hair—said unkind things about the Fairy Queen. You will have to travel all by yourself to Fairyland, and serve the Queen faithfully for a year or a day, or until you do her so great a service that she sets you free of her own accord.” Meg stamped her foot. “I won’t go,” she declared. “Fairies are silly, and there aren’t any, anyway!” Bizzybuzz fell on his face, trembling. “Treason!” he squeaked. “Heresy! Oh, Lady Queen, dear Mother Goose! Do not kill her for saying such a terrible thing in Make Believe Land!” “No,” said Mother Goose, gravely, “I will not kill her, but her journey must be just ten times harder for every word of that sort that she has ever said.” Then she turned to Bab. “You called Santa Claus a Bore!” she said. “_Santa Claus!_ Well, little lady, you will have to journey to his dwelling-place, and whatever may happen to you, you will not be bored! And there you must stay until he sets you free, which he can only do after you have been of some great service to him.” Bab hung her head and looked almost ready to cry. “And you,” said Mother Goose, still more sternly, turning to Dick,—“_you_ laughed at ME!” “Yes, I did!” said little Dick, stoutly. “But I don’t see why that was so very dreadful. I’d never seen you then, you see, and how could I know that you were real? I shouldn’t laugh at you now, of course,” he added politely. “Wouldn’t you? That is very nice of you!” said Mother Goose; and her eyes twinkled. “Well, Master Dick, at least you are honest and straightforward, and I think that some day we may be friends,—even though I _am_ ‘a regular old goose, and no mistake!’” Dick reddened, but grinned at the same time. “That’s what I said,” he admitted. “But I’m sure I beg your pardon!” “Now pay close attention,” said Mother Goose, growing very serious indeed. “I am in great trouble, and your task, because you laughed at me, is to serve me, and help me out of all my worries. My dear son, Humpty Dumpty, has been a prisoner in the city of the Wicked King for three hundred and three years. They have turned him into an egg, and they keep him sitting up on the city wall from one century’s end to another.” “Why do they do that?” asked Dick.