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Holiday Romance by Charles Dickens
page 18 of 58 (31%)
'Be good, then,' said the old lady, 'and don't!'

With those words, Grandmarina vanished, and the king went on and on
and on, till he came to the office. There he wrote and wrote and
wrote, till it was time to go home again. Then he politely invited
the Princess Alicia, as the fairy had directed him, to partake of
the salmon. And when she had enjoyed it very much, he saw the
fish-bone on her plate, as the fairy had told him he would, and he
delivered the fairy's message, and the Princess Alicia took care to
dry the bone, and to rub it, and to polish it, till it shone like
mother-of-pearl.

And so, when the queen was going to get up in the morning, she
said, 'O, dear me, dear me; my head, my head!' and then she fainted
away.

The Princess Alicia, who happened to be looking in at the chamber-
door, asking about breakfast, was very much alarmed when she saw
her royal mamma in this state, and she rang the bell for Peggy,
which was the name of the lord chamberlain. But remembering where
the smelling-bottle was, she climbed on a chair and got it; and
after that she climbed on another chair by the bedside, and held
the smelling-bottle to the queen's nose; and after that she jumped
down and got some water; and after that she jumped up again and
wetted the queen's forehead; and, in short, when the lord
chamberlain came in, that dear old woman said to the little
princess, 'What a trot you are! I couldn't have done it better
myself!'

But that was not the worst of the good queen's illness. O, no!
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