"He means your sword, please, Sir," she said, so very humbly that the guard's face cleared, and she gave Pierre's hand a tight squeeze to remind him that sometimes the smaller people are the bigger they feel themselves to be.
"No, I don't need any wand. My duty is simply to keep order. I have nothing to do with helping other people about their affairs as Rose-Petal and Lily-bud and others like them are always doing."
Iona tried not to laugh. The guard was so small and thought so much of himself.
"If I should pick this orange flower what would happen to me?" asked Pierre. "Would you take me before the king and queen?" He was thinking that might be a good way to get there.
"It would be my duty to thrust your fingers through and through," replied the guard, his hand on his sword hilt and his face very threatening, "and you should never see the king and queen."
"Oh, we wouldn't do it, of course," exclaimed Iona hastily, "since you ask us not to, and if you would be so very kind as to tell us how to get to the fairy court we couldn't thank you enough."
The guard's fierce frown vanished and he regarded the children more cheerfully.
"First," said he, "of course you would have to travel some distance."
"O yes," they cried.
"You will have to do exactly as I tell you."