With those words, Grandmarina vanished, and the king went on and on
and on, till he came to the office.  There he wrote and wrote and
wrote, till it was time to go home again.  Then he politely invited
the Princess Alicia, as the fairy had directed him, to partake of
the salmon.  And when she had enjoyed it very much, he saw the
fish-bone on her plate, as the fairy had told him he would, and he
delivered the fairy's message, and the Princess Alicia took care to
dry the bone, and to rub it, and to polish it, till it shone like
mother-of-pearl.

And so, when the queen was going to get up in the morning, she
said, 'O, dear me, dear me; my head, my head!' and then she fainted
away.

The Princess Alicia, who happened to be looking in at the chamber-
door, asking about breakfast, was very much alarmed when she saw
her royal mamma in this state, and she rang the bell for Peggy,
which was the name of the lord chamberlain.  But remembering where
the smelling-bottle was, she climbed on a chair and got it; and
after that she climbed on another chair by the bedside, and held
the smelling-bottle to the queen's nose; and after that she jumped
down and got some water; and after that she jumped up again and
wetted the queen's forehead; and, in short, when the lord
chamberlain came in, that dear old woman said to the little
princess, 'What a trot you are!  I couldn't have done it better
myself!'

But that was not the worst of the good queen's illness.  O, no!
She was very ill indeed, for a long time.  The Princess Alicia kept
the seventeen young princes and princesses quiet, and dressed and
undressed and danced the baby, and made the kettle boil, and heated
the soup, and swept the hearth, and poured out the medicine, and
nursed the queen, and did all that ever she could, and was as busy,
busy, busy as busy could be; for there were not many servants at
that palace for three reasons: because the king was short of money,
because a rise in his office never seemed to come, and because
quarter-day was so far off that it looked almost as far off and as
little as one of the stars.

But on the morning when the queen fainted away, where was the magic
fish-bone?  Why, there it was in the Princess Alicia's pocket!  She
had almost taken it out to bring the queen to life again, when she
put it back, and looked for the smelling-bottle.

After the queen had come out of her swoon that morning, and was
dozing, the Princess Alicia hurried up-stairs to tell a most
particular secret to a most particularly confidential friend of
hers, who was a duchess.  People did suppose her to be a doll; but
she was really a duchess, though nobody knew it except the
princess.

This most particular secret was the secret about the magic fish-
bone, the history of which was well known to the duchess, because
the princess told her everything.  The princess kneeled down by the
bed on which the duchess was lying, full-dressed and wide awake,
and whispered the secret to her.  The duchess smiled and nodded.
People might have supposed that she never smiled and nodded; but
she often did, though nobody knew it except the princess.

Then the Princess Alicia hurried down-stairs again, to keep watch
in the queen's room.  She often kept watch by herself in the
queen's room; but every evening, while the illness lasted, she sat
there watching with the king.  And every evening the king sat
looking at her with a cross look, wondering why she never brought
out the magic fish-bone.  As often as she noticed this, she ran up-
stairs, whispered the secret to the duchess over again, and said to
the duchess besides, 'They think we children never have a reason or
a meaning!'  And the duchess, though the most fashionable duchess
that ever was heard of, winked her eye.

'Alicia,' said the king, one evening, when she wished him good-
night.

'Yes, papa.'

'What is become of the magic fish-bone?'

'In my pocket, papa!'

'I thought you had lost it?'

'O, no, papa!'

'Or forgotten it?'

'No, indeed, papa.'

And so another time the dreadful little snapping pug-dog, next
door, made a rush at one of the young princes as he stood on the
steps coming home from school, and terrified him out of his wits;
and he put his hand through a pane of glass, and bled, bled, bled.
When the seventeen other young princes and princesses saw him
bleed, bleed, bleed, they were terrified out of their wits too, and
screamed themselves black in their seventeen faces all at once.
But the Princess Alicia put her hands over all their seventeen
mouths, one after another, and persuaded them to be quiet because
of the sick queen.  And then she put the wounded prince's hand in a
basin of fresh cold water, while they stared with their twice
seventeen are thirty-four, put down four and carry three, eyes, and
then she looked in the hand for bits of glass, and there were