"Why don't you take it, then?"
"Because it would be stealing, and stealing's wicked; besides, I should
be sent to prison for it."
"I don't understand quite what you mean," the Queen said. "But come
with me somewhere where we can get some food, and you shall have as much
as you like."
The fern-seller arose with alacrity.
"There's a shop near here where they sell some delicious honey-cakes."
"I can't make it out," the Queen said to herself. "If he's hungry he
can't be contented; and yet the Regent said every one was contented in
the land, because of his being Regent. He must have been mistaken, or
else this man must be one of the traitors."