"Well, then, count them. There they are. One, two, three, four, five, six. How can you say I have drunk any of them? and millions too. It is you who are telling the stories. I never drink cups. I drink tea."
Nellie did not know what to say to this. "Well, you drank plenty of tea, then," she said. "You did not leave any for me."
"I think it is about time I went home, if that is the way you treat your visitors," said her Majesty, highly offended. "It is very rude to tell people how much they eat. I shan't come to see you again. And after letting you have that six-pence, too."
"It was Pa who gave it to me," said Nellie, who was a very truthful child.
"Well, how did my head come on it then if it did not come from me in the first place?"
Nellie could not answer a word.
"Well, I must be going," said the Queen, recovering her good humour now that she had silenced Nellie.
Nellie was just making her a grand curtsey when the door burst open and in rushed the maid, holding her handkerchief to her face.
"It's the blackbird," she sobbed. "He's snapped off my nose."
"Stick it on again," said the Queen.