as some children have of the water. For the slightest gust of wind
would blow her away; and a gust might arise in the stillest moment.
And if she gave herself a push towards the water and just failed of
reaching it, her situation would be dreadfully awkward,
irrespective of the wind; for at best there she would have to
remain, suspended in her nightgown, till she was seen and angled
for by someone from the window.

"Oh! if I had my gravity," thought she, contemplating the water, "I
would flash off this balcony like a long white sea-bird, headlong
into the darling wetness. Heigh-ho!"

This was the only consideration that made her wish to be like other
people.

Another reason for her being fond of the water was that in it alone
she enjoyed any freedom. For she could not walk out without a
cortege, consisting in part of a troop of light horse, for fear of
the liberties which the wind might take with her. And the king grew
more apprehensive with increasing years, till at last he would not
allow her to walk abroad at all without some twenty silken cords
fastened to as many parts of her dress, and held by twenty
noblemen. Of course horseback was out of the question. But she bade
good-by to all this ceremony when she got into the water.

And so remarkable were its effects upon her, especially in
restoring her for the time to the ordinary human gravity, that
Hum-Drum and Kopy-Keck agreed in recommending the king to bury her
alive for three years; in the hope that, as the water did her so
much good, the earth would do her yet more. But the king had some