His Majesty seemed much pleased. "I am very sorry you cannot live here always," he said.
"I'm not," declared Chubbins. "It's too pretty. I'd get tired of it soon."
"He means," said Twinkle, hastily, for she feared the blunt remark would displease the kindly King, "that he isn't really a bird, but a boy who has been forced to wear a bird's body. And your Majesty is wise enough to understand that the sort of life you lead in your fairy paradise would be very different from the life that boys generally lead."
"Of course," replied the King. "A boy's life must be a dreadful one."
"It suits me, all right," said Chubbins.
The King looked at him attentively.
"Would you really prefer to resume your old shape, and cease to be a bird?" he asked.
"Yes, if I could," Chubbins replied.
"Then I will tell you how to do it," said the King. "Since you told me your strange story I have talked with my Royal Necromancer, who knows a good deal about magic, and especially about that same tuxix who wickedly transformed you in the forest. And the Royal Necromancer tells me that if you can find a tingle-berry, and eat it, you will resume your natural form again. For it is the one antidote in all the world for the charm the tuxix worked upon you."
"What is a tingle-berry?" asked Twinkle, anxiously, for this information interested her as much as it did Chubbins.