But though the two old ladies thus tried to improve the occasion by a
little lecturing, Griselda could see that at the bottom of their hearts
they were both so happy that, even if she had been very naughty indeed,
they could hardly have made up their minds to scold her.

She was not at all inclined to be naughty this day. She had something
to think about and look forward to, which made her quite a different
little girl, and made her take heart in doing her lessons as well as she
possibly could.

"I wonder when the cuckoo will have considered enough about my having no
one to play with?" she said to herself, as she was walking up and down
the terrace at the back of the house.

"Caw, caw!" screamed a rook just over her head, as if in answer to her
thought.

Griselda looked up at him.

"Your voice isn't half so pretty as the cuckoo's, Mr. Rook," she said.
"All the same, I dare say I should make friends with you, if I
understood what you meant. How funny it would be to know all the
languages of the birds and the beasts, like the prince in the fairy
tale! I wonder if I should wish for that, if a fairy gave me a wish? No,
I don't think I would. I'd _far_ rather have the fairy carpet that would
take you anywhere you liked in a minute. I'd go to China to see if all
the people there look like Aunt Grizzel's mandarins; and I'd first of
all, of course, go to fairyland."