СНАРТER II.

THE FIRST DAY'S STORY.

Ar lounging-time next day, each fairy repaired to the flower-and-moss carpeted drawing-room of the queen. The queen herself soon appeared with her retinue, and seated herself upon her flower-throne. Glassée occupied the place of honor at her right hand, and looked quite dignified, though demure, with her bright face smoothed down into soberness at the idea of being the historian of the party. The tiny, lovely-tinted wand was waved; and each fairy hushed herself into the most perfect stillness as Glassée commenced:

"We live in a garden, to be sure; but the garden is in a villa, and the villa is in a city, and the city is in a great, great country "—

"What country?" broke in the pert, inquisitive little Vial.

"Ho, ho!" exclaimed the queen, waving her wand: "no interruptions! Let the story go on; and, if any fairy interrupt, she must pay a penalty. I will allow only three questions to be asked by any one; and, if one asks more than that, I shall hold a court after the stories are through, and decide upon a punishment for the culprit." So all hushed themselves down again.

"This great, great country," again began Glassée, "is Italy. There were rivers and mountains, and there were great forests, here once; but, a long time ago, there were no cities. Then some people came and built cities." And Glassée stood up, and stretched herself on her toes as high as she could; and the queen and all the little fairies followed her example, and all stood on the points of their toes, while she pointed far off, and said, "There, on those high hills opposite,-those blue hills, one city was built, with long white walls, and its name was Alba; and those are the Alban Hills."

So every eye was wide open, and every little sprite was eager to see the long white walls; but none were to be seen: for that which Glassée had been telling of happened more than two thousand years ago; and now those walls and buildings are all gone except a few stones, rubbish, which may be found here and there. But those blue hills where the walls were the soft, blue hills, so dream-like, charming, and beautiful — still remain; and they are just the same as they were two thousand years ago.

Each fairy elf then sat herself down again in the greatest stillness to hear the rest of the story.

"The city of Alba was built, and it was filled with people; and they had kings to rule over them, one king after another. At length, two little twins were born, whose mother was the daughter of the king. So, for fear that these little boys should come to be kings when they grew up, a bad man- their uncle -said they must be sent away. They were put into a basket, the little things!-and thrown into the river, the long river that comes from the moun

tains, and runs winding along and along the Campagna, among the green fields, till it goes out into the sea. It is the Tiber; and we can see it, looking very yellow and muddy, when we go into the city, a short distance from our villa.

"The basket and the babies were not heavy; and they floated along and along on the top of the water until they came to a place about a quarter of a mile from this garden, where there was a wild fig-tree growing on the bank of the river. It was close by the Palatine Hill (for you must know that there are seven hills in Rome, and one of them is the Palatine); and there, under the wild fig-tree, the basket was washed ashore, and lay upon the ground. The two babies, I suppose, moaned and cried; when a wolf happened along that way, and, seeing the helpless little children, just like a mother she staid beside them, and let them feed upon her milk.

"Afterwards a good shepherd found them, and carried them home to his cottage, and told his wife to take care of them, which she did; and she loved them so well, and took such good care of them,

that they grew fat and strong. When they came to be big boys, they played with the other shepherdboys round about; and Romulus, one of the twins,. always would be the leader, because he was very clever, and knew how to manage. When they had grown quite large, the King of Alba found out that these were his grandsons: so he took them into his palace, and made them live with him for a time. But at length, when they had become older, he told them they might go and build themselves a city. Then they came back to the very place where they had lived under the fig-tree, and in the shepherd's hut; and Romulus laid out a town, and put a low wall around it, and invited many persons to come; and they came and lived there. Thus the town grew larger and larger, and Romulus was the king, and they called it Rome, for him; and it was this very, very city that we are living in.

"The other twin had been killed one day: but Romulus lived many years; and, although he was king, he dwelt only in a straw-roofed cottage; for they had no better palace then. One day,