"Well," said she, looking up, "I _do_ wonder where they are going so
fast,"--and then she stopped,--"and I do think they might he civil
enough just to let a body know; I dare say 'tis the coronation, or the
butterfly-hunt, or the tournament, or the-- O, how I should like to be
there!"
No sooner was the wish uttered, than she found herself seated in a high
gallery, as delicately carved as the ivory fans of the east; with
diamonds and ostrich-feathers all about and below her, and a prodigious
crowd assembled in the open air,--with the lists open,--a trumpet
sounding,--and scores of knights armed cap-a-pie, and mounted on
dragon-flies, waiting for the charge. All eyes were upon her, and
everybody about was whispering her name, and she never felt half so
happy in her life; and she was just beginning to compare the delicate
embroidery of her wings with that of her next neighbor, a sweet little
fairy who sat looking through her fingers at a youthful champion below,
and pouting and pouting as if she wanted everybody to know that he had
jilted her, when she happened to see a little forget-me-not embroidered
on his beaver; and she instantly recollected her promise, and cried out,
"O mamma! mamma!" and wished herself back again, where she might sit by
the flower and watch over it, and never leave it, never! till her three
days of trial were ended.
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