14 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [..

listener’s ears, the bees were humming their drowsy
farewell to the sun, the robin chanted hisevening hymn,
the timid bats had begun to flutter out to meet the ap-
proaching twilight, and the busy life of day was just
giving place to the quiet sleep of night. Touched to the
heart by the influence of the hour, the Royal lady
continued to weep softly for some moments, and then,
clasping her hands together with fervour, she exclaimed
aloud—

‘Everything seems happy and peaceful—I alone
am wretched—I alone have no joy in life, for the love
of my heart was for my boy, and he has been taken
from me. Oh! will he never, never, come back?
Shall I never see him again ?’

As she spoke, the Queen threw a supplicating
glance heavenwards, and would probably have con-
tinued to say more in the same strain, had not her
last question been suddenly answered in a most
unexpected manner.

‘Why not?’ exclaimed a voice in a short, sharp
tone, which of itself, coming from an invisible speaker,
would have been startling enough, but, considering the
particular time and place at which it was heard, was
alarming in a remarkable degree.

The Queen started violently, and looked right,
left, and behind the tree, without seeing anything at
all. Then it struck her to look straight in front of
her by way of a change, and immediately that she did
so she perceived the person from whom the voice had
proceeded. It was a man so small that you might
fairly have called him a dwarf without being accused
of misrepresentation. He could not have been four