Then the Princess Alicia hurried down-stairs again, to keep watch
in the queen's room. She often kept watch by herself in the
queen's room; but every evening, while the illness lasted, she sat
there watching with the king. And every evening the king sat
looking at her with a cross look, wondering why she never brought
out the magic fish-bone. As often as she noticed this, she ran up-
stairs, whispered the secret to the duchess over again, and said to
the duchess besides, 'They think we children never have a reason or
a meaning!' And the duchess, though the most fashionable duchess
that ever was heard of, winked her eye.

'Alicia,' said the king, one evening, when she wished him good-
night.

'Yes, papa.'

'What is become of the magic fish-bone?'

'In my pocket, papa!'

'I thought you had lost it?'

'O, no, papa!'

'Or forgotten it?'

'No, indeed, papa.'

And so another time the dreadful little snapping pug-dog, next