“O dame!” exclaimed the boy, and laughed.
The lady, on hearing this, turned pale, for she perceived that she herself had mistaken the one for the other.
“I see you know how to laugh,” said the real Jack. “You are wiser people than those whom I went to first; but the reason I don’t like you is, that you are so exactly like me.”
“I am not!” exclaimed the boy. “Only hear him, dame! You mean, I suppose, that you are so exactly like me. I am sure I don’t know what you mean by it.”
“Nor I either,” replied Jack, almost in a passion.
“It couldn’t be helped, of course,” said the other Jack.
“Hush! hush!” said the fairy woman; “don’t wake our dear little Queen. Was it you, my royal nephew, who spoke last?”
“Yes, dame,” answered the boy, and again he offered the plate; but Jack was swelling with indignation, and he gave the plate a push with his elbow, which scattered the fruit and bread on the ground.
“I won’t eat it,” he said; but when the other Jack went and picked it up again, and said, “Oh, yes, do, old fellow; it’s not my fault, you know,” he began to consider that it was no use being cross in Fairyland; so he forgave his double, and had just finished his breakfast when Mopsa woke.
