"Dear little mannikin!—It's nothing—only you mustn't bother with questions just now about things you can't understand."
And she sat down, and took him on her lap, and comforted him.
And mannikin leaned his head on her shoulder, and said, very sniffy,
"Lub me," for he was a sentimental little thing.
And he told Baby about his home in a cottage in the Forest far away, where he used to live with his old mother, and little lame sister, and the tortoise-shell cat, till the King came and took him.
And when he told about that, he began to cry again.
Then Baby jigged him a bit, and said,
"Now I'll tell you a secret the Queen told me last time she came round with the butter.—The King is going to let you out soon now, because at all events you try to be good. There!"
And when mannikin heard that, he sniffed and said,
"Gobblessim."