She opened it and entered a magnificent room where beautiful kings and queens were dancing. They were all dressed in spangled white robes, but Little Miss Helpful had the most beautiful dress in the room.
A handsome prince came forward to meet Little Miss Helpful and the next minute she was dancing around the room with him.
She was feeling very happy when all at once she heard a chicken squeal. “A cat!” cried Little Miss Helpful, and she darted for the door, ran through the hall and out into the woodlands as fast as she could go. The wind was blowing and suddenly her blue silk bonnet fell off. She never stopped to pick it up, but ran on toward her grandmother’s cottage. She never noticed in her hurry that the minute her blue bonnet came off the silk dress disappeared and she had on her old gingham frock again.
She was quite out of breath when she reached the back yard. She hurriedly counted the chicks and to her dismay found only eleven. One was missing and she could have cried she felt so disappointed. She called, “Grandma, grandma!”
“What is it, dearie?” said the old lady, coming to the door.
“Alas! grandma, one of the chicks is missing,” cried the little girl, and two big tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Don’t cry,” said her grandmother, “but look around and see if you can find it. I will watch the chickens till you return.”
Little Miss Helpful walked all around the field, calling, “Chick, chick, come chickey, chickey.” “Perhaps it strayed away,” she said to herself and she took the path for the woods and looked behind the bushes, but she could not find her chicken. All at once she saw a little girl coming toward her. The girl was swinging a blue silk bonnet in her hand and as she came nearer Little Miss Helpful saw that it was her cousin, Nannie Worthless, who lived in the village.
“See,” said Nannie, holding up the blue bonnet, “I found it in the woods and I am going to keep it.”
“It belongs to me,” cried Little Miss Helpful, “I lost it a little while ago.”