“I thought I knew, once,” said Miss Phyllisy. “But I don’t know so well now. Can you guess, Pat?”
Pat shook her head. “No. But she’ll tell us.” And the Princess went on to tell them, in her own way:—
“Cepheus awoke one night, the first of the Star People. As he turned his head quickly, something bobbed against his forehead; and he could see—out of the tail of his eye—something dangling that moved when he did. He took off his crown and looked at it. There was a rather wilted green meteor tucked into it. He knew he didn’t put it there himself, but he didn’t take it out, and while he was thinking about it, Draco woke.
“He gave his wings a flap to see that the joints worked right, and something fell out of the fold of one of them. What should it be but a little green meteor with a very short stem!
“‘That’th funny,’ he said. Then he stuck it on one of the sharp prongs of his wing, and came over to Cepheus.
“‘Thee what I’ve got,’ he said.
“‘So have I,’ said Cepheus. ‘Where did they come from?’
“‘Maybe it’th a joke. Do you thuppoth any one elth hath them?—I’m going to look.’
“‘Cathiopeia hath!’ he called, in a whisper. ‘Right on the arm of her chair bethide her.’
“Cepheus was perfectly willing to have some one else do the running about; so he waited, and in a few minutes Draco came back to him.