V. HOW PRINCESS ANGELICA TOOK A LITTLE MAID

One day, when the Princess Angelica was quite a little girl, she
was walking in the garden of the palace, with Mrs. Gruffanuff, the
governess, holding a parasol over her head, to keep her sweet complexion
from the freckles, and Angelica was carrying a bun, to feed the swans
and ducks in the royal pond.

They had not reached the duck-pond, when there came toddling up to them
such a funny little girl! She had a great quantity of hair blowing about
her chubby little cheeks, and looked as if she had not been washed or
combed for ever so long. She wore a ragged bit of a cloak, and had only
one shoe on.

'You little wretch, who let you in here?' asked Mrs. Gruffanuff.

'Div me dat bun,' said the little girl, 'me vely hungy.'

'Hungry! what is that?' asked Princess Angelica, and gave the child the
bun.

'Oh, Princess!' says Mrs. Gruffanuff, 'how good, how kind, how truly
angelical you are! See, Your Majesties,' she said to the King and Queen,
who now came up, along with their nephew, Prince Giglio, 'how kind the
Princess is! She met this little dirty wretch in the garden--I can't
tell how she came in here, or why the guards did not shoot her dead at
the gate!--and the dear darling of a Princess has given her the whole of
her bun!'