imagination for all it was worth. What that famous blackbird-pie really
cost--except in black-birds--is not disclosed, though the King seemed to
show some anxiety about the state of his treasury, as he was discovered
"in his counting house" imediately after the feast. But while the Queen,
regardless of expense, regales herself on "bread and honey" in "the
parlour", and her Maid-of-honour, or perhaps of-all-work, is engaged at
the clothes-line, nothing is said about a princess.

No doubt there was a princess, and that Princess might have been
PRINCESS BELLE-ETOILE? Anyway here she is in the same boat--I mean
book--and certainly her adventures are romantic enough to prevent any
surprise at the company in which Her Highness now finds herself.

Even princesses cannot do without Alphabets, and so in her train comes
AN ALPHABET in which will be discovered many OLD and tried FRIENDS of
the Nursery.

Thus we launch another volume of our series, like a fairy ship with a
rather mixed cargo, in the hope that--to change the metaphor--like the
blackbird-pie, it may prove, when opened, to be "a pretty dish to set
before--" their Babyships.

Walter Crane

[Illustration]

Kensington. Sept: 1909

[Illustration] [Illustration]