Now this purse was lined with a nice piece of pale green silk; and when Jack gave it to her, she pulled the silk out and stretched it, just as the fairy woman had done, and it became a most lovely cloak. Then she twisted up her long hair into a coil, fastened it around her head, and called to the fireflies, which were beginning to glitter on the trees; and they came and alighted in a row upon the coil, and turned into diamonds directly! So now Mopsa had a crown and a robe. She was so beautiful that Jack thought he would never be tired of looking at her.
The next morning Jack found that his fairy boat had floated away. He called to it, but it would not return. “Never mind,” said Mopsa, “my country is still waiting for me beyond the purple mountains. I shall never be happy unless we go there, and we can go together on foot.”
So they walked toward the purple mountains hand-in-hand. When night came, and they were too tired to walk any further, the shooting stars began to appear in all directions; and at Mopsa’s command they brought a little cushion, and Jack and Mopsa sat upon it, and the stars carried the two over the paths of the mountains and half-way down the other side. When they awoke the next morning, there spread before them the loveliest garden one ever saw, and among the trees and woods was a most beautiful castle.
queen mopsa flies to her kingdom
from a drawing by florence mary anderson
“Oh, Jack!” said Mopsa, “I am sure that castle is the place I am to live in. I shall soon be Queen and there I shall reign.”
“And I shall be King there,” said Jack. “Shall I?”
“Yes, if you can,” answered Mopsa; “and in Fairy-land, of course, whatever you can do, you may do.”
It was a long way to the castle; and at last Jack and Mopsa were so tired that they sat down, and Mopsa began to cry.
“Remember,” said Jack, “that you are nearly a Queen, and you can never reach your castle by sitting still.”