While they were still standing in front of the cupboard, looking up at the Ark and wishing their hardest, the Stick came in and drove them out of the room, down the big hall, and into a small room. There he left them, and, as the door banged behind him, they looked round the room in curiosity. It seemed to be full of dead flies, butterflies, and other insects, and while they were wondering why they should be brought into what seemed to be a burying-place for dead insects, the Queen of the Fairies appeared before them.
“Princes,” she said scornfully, “these poor dumb things which could not protect themselves were tormented and killed by Princes, who are not worthy even of the term boy, which stands for bravery—and Princes should be the leaders of boys, the bravest of the brave.” She looked terrible in her anger. The poor Princes dared not utter a word.
She went on, “You had your ‘fun,’ as you called it, now you have got to pay for it, and this is the price. Every day from morning till night, you must stay in this room, and work at these poor little insects. Every leg and every wing must be put on its owner’s body in the right place. When all are ready, I shall appear.”
The Fairy vanished, and the Princes, who had learned to obey during their journey through the Forest, set to work. Weary work it was too, and the worst of it was, that, if one of the Princes grumbled ever so little, the insect upon which he was working fell to pieces, and the parts had to be patiently searched for, and put together again.
At last, however, every insect was complete, and just as the Princes gave a sigh of relief as they looked at their finished task, there stood the Queen of the Fairies before them. No anger was in her face now, but a sweet loving smile. She gently waved her wand over the dead insects, and, lo, a buzzing and humming immediately began as they stirred, flew round the room, and out of the window into the fresh air.
The Queen looked sadly at the Princes. “If you had been cruel only, your work would now be done, your education finished, but, alas! there are two more rooms through which you must go. The work will be hard, but if you will remember that grumbling undoes the work you grumble about, your task will be much easier than this sad one has been to you.”
She vanished as suddenly as she had appeared, and the faithful old Stick came hoppity, hoppity, hop into the room, and, following it, they were led into a big room full of broken crockery. They gave a start of dismay as they saw how much there was. Could it be possible they had destroyed so many things? “Look,” said Prince Thomas, pointing to six big tables, “there are the bedroom sets we smashed up the day the Fairies took us away. I do wish we had been wiser, then we would not have had to work so hard now.” His brothers agreed, and although this was rather a selfish motive for wishing to be good, still it was a big step in the right direction, and the first real step they had taken towards going back to their father’s Palace.
They set to work with a will, patiently putting the big pieces in order, and then searching for the small bits to fit in. A long, long time it took, and knowing that the least grumble might mean the whole of the crockery falling to pieces, and the pieces all having to be put together again, they tried so hard to be patient that not a single grumble escaped one of them.
What joy when the whole of the things were mended! This time the Fairy did not appear, but they were led by the Stick into another room full of queer rolls of paper. What could they be? Looking closely at them, they soon discovered. Alas! all the bad or disobedient or rude words they had ever spoken were plainly to be seen. “Oh dear!” said Prince Richard, “can it be possible that we were such bad, disobedient, rude boys? we should have had more niceness than that.”
“Yes, indeed,” replied his brothers.