"What shall I do?" she cried; "I shall be eaten up," and
being too frightened to run a single step, she began to cry,
and leaned against the tree under which she had been
asleep.

Just then she heard some one say: "H'm, h'm!"

She looked all round her, and then up the tree, and
there she saw a little tiny man, who was eating oranges.

"Oh! Queen," said he, "I know you very well, and I
know how much afraid you are of the lions; and you are
quite right too, for they have eaten many other people:
and what can you expect, as you have not any cake to
give them?"

"I must make up my mind to die," said the poor Queen.
"Alas! I should not care so much if only my dear daughter
were married."

"Oh! you have a daughter," cried the Yellow Dwarf
(who was so called because he _was_ a dwarf and had such
a yellow face, and lived in the orange tree). "I'm really
glad to hear that, for I've been looking for a wife all over
the world. Now, if you will promise that she shall marry
me, not one of the lions, tigers, or bears shall touch you."

The Queen looked at him and was almost as much
afraid of his ugly little face as she had been of the lions