"Well, one evening when we were down by the sea, we saw the whole sky
lit up over there, and, later, we heard from a traveller, that the
people had set fire to the town when they were fighting about who was to
be Regent."
"Yes, I'm afraid they are rather fond of doing that; but I didn't know
anything about it."
"How was that?" the ploughman said.
And in reply, the Queen told them her story, to which they listened very
attentively, and hardly interrupted at all to ask questions.
And so, it being finished, the little old woman took the Queen up to bed
in a little room under the eaves, and, bidding her a kind good night,
left her.
The Queen's window looked out down the valley, and she could, as she
undressed, see the moon shining placidly along it, gleaming on the dew
mist, and glancing here and there on the waters of the little stream
where its zigzag course caught the light.
There was never a sound save the tinkle of the brook or the dull noise
of a horse that moved its feet in the stable.
So the Queen fell asleep, and did not awaken till the sun was high in
the sky.
She rubbed her eyes and could not quite make out where she was at first.
She missed the noise of the geese, to which she had been used to awaken.
But gradually it all came back to her, and for a while she lay and
watched the roses that were peeping in at the window and nodding in the
morning breeze.
"Come, this will never do!" the Queen said to herself. "Whatever will
they think of me?" So she arose from between the warm, clean sheets,
and, having dressed herself, went downstairs. There she found the little
old woman busy in the kitchen.
"Good morning, my dear," she said.