“Jack and Mopsa, I love you both. I had a message last night from my old mother, and I told you what it was.”
“Yes, Queen,” said Mopsa, “you did.”
“And now,” continued the Queen, “she has sent this beautiful brown doe from the country beyond the lake, where they are in the greatest distress for a queen, to offer Mopsa the crown; and, Jack, it is fated that Mopsa is to reign there, so you had better say no more about it.”
“I don’t want to be a queen,” said Mopsa, pouting; “I want to play with Jack.”
“You are a queen already,” answered the real Queen; “at least, you will be in a few days. You are so much grown, even since the morning, that you come up nearly to Jack’s shoulder. In four days you will be as tall as I am; and it is quite impossible that any one of fairy birth should be as tall as a queen in her own country.”
“But I don’t see what stags and does can want with a queen,” said Jack.
“They were obliged to turn into deer,” said the Queen, “when they crossed their own border; but they are fairies when they are at home, and they want Mopsa, because they are always obliged to have a queen of alien birth.”
“If I go,” said Mopsa, “shall Jack go too?”
“Oh, no,” answered the Queen; “Jack and the apple-woman are my subjects.”
“Apple-woman,” said Jack, “tell us what you think; shall Mopsa go to this country?”