"'Oh, I don't mind!' cried Eric; 'really, you know, I should like it!'
"I'll hold him for you!' cried several boys at once.
"'Quite as if they liked it,' whispered the girls.
"But Queen May interposed, and said the court should break up and go to blind-man's-buff. At the same hour next day any one who had a bright idea should come and tell it. For the rest of the day she, at least, did not mean to bother her head. If a pig were killed, it would have to be cooked. And shaking her curls, which were like a crown of gold, Queen May jumped off her throne and ran out into the park.
"Presently the Fairy Set-'em-right came flying over the town, and saw all the children running about and shrieking with laughter.
"'Bless my broomstick!' she said, for she had borrowed one from a witch to fly upon, saying she had rheumatism in her left wing. 'Bless my broomstick! this won't do at all!'
"She did not notice that a great many children were standing about in groups, whispering—what they dared not say aloud—that they were getting tired of games all day, and of nothing to eat but sweet cakes and jam at meals.
"'I should really, really and truly, like some boiled mutton,' said Master Archie, who was known to have had a special dislike to that dish.
"'I know what I shall do,' said the fairy; 'I shall make these children feel like grown-ups, and then I shall fly off to the mountains, and make the grown-ups feel like children; and if that doesn't bring them to their senses, I am sure I don't know what will.'
"So the Fairy Set-'em-right waved her hand over the troop of children,
'You shall all feel like grown-up people,' she said.