"Red?" said I. "Ah, I have it. The wicked fairy has cast a spell over
the slipper and turned it white."
"That would simplify everything ... if we lived in fairy-tale times. Oh,
dear, there are no fairies nowadays, and I wonder how in the world I am
to get home."
"You have the pumpkins and the mice."
"Only the pumpkins; it is after twelve, and all the mice have gone
home."
"Haven't you an incantation?"