“I am a queen now.”
“Yes, my sweet Queen,” answered the lady, “I know you are.”
“And you promise that you will be kind to me till I grow up,” said Mopsa, “and love me, and teach me how to reign?”
“Yes,” repeated the lady; “and I will love you too, just as if you were a mortal and I your mother.”
“For I am only ten years old yet,” said Mopsa, “and the throne is too big for me to sit upon; but I am a queen.” And then she paused, and said, “Is it three o’clock?”
As she spoke, the sweet clear bell of the castle sounded three times, and then chimes began to play; they played such a joyous tune that it made everybody sing. The dame sang, the crowd of fairies sang, the boy who was Jack’s double sang, and Mopsa sang—only Jack was silent—and this was the song:
“The prince shall to the chase again,
The dame has got her face again,
The king shall have his place again
Aneath the fairy dome.