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She could only stand and look like one in a dream while the maids very kindly took away her poor brown dress and hat, and after much gossip over what looked best, at last put on a rosy muslin frock, a straw hat with roses in it, and some neat shoes and stockings. Then when her hair was smoothed in thick brown curls, they told her to look in the tall mirror and tell what she saw there.

“Oh, what a pretty little girl!” cried Betty, smiling and nodding at the other child, who smiled and nodded back at her. She did not know herself, never having had any glass but a quiet pool in the wood or the brook in the meadow.

The maids laughed, and then she saw who it was, and laughed with them, and danced and courtesied and was very merry till a bell rang and she was ordered to go to her Highness.

It was a lovely room, all hung with blue silk and lace, with a silver bed, and chairs and couches of blue damask, pictures on the walls, flowers in all the windows, and golden cages full of birds. A white cat slept on its cushion, a tiny dog ran about with a golden collar hung with bells, and books and toys were heaped on the tables. The Princess was scolding her nurse because she wanted her to rest longer after the drive; but when Betty came in looking so pretty and gay, the frown changed to a smile, and she cried,–

“How nice you look! Not like a Brownie now; but I hope you have not forgotten about the birds.”

“No,” said Betty; “let me listen a minute and I’ll tell you what they say.”

So both were silent, and the maid and nurse kept as still as mice while the canary sang his shrill, sweet song, and Betty’s face grew sad as she heard it.

“He says he is tired of his cage and longs to be free among the other birds; for a tree is a better home than a golden palace, and a crumb in the wood sweeter than all the sugar in his silver cup. ‘Let me go! let me go! or my heart will break!’ That is what he says, and the bulfinch sings the same song; so do the love birds and the beautiful gay one whom I don’t know.”

“What does Polly say? I understand him when he talks, but not when he scolds and chatters to himself as he is doing now,” said the Princess, looking much surprised at what she heard; for she thought her birds must be happy in such fine cages.

Betty listened to the great red and green and blue parrot, who sat on a perch wagging his head and chuckling to himself as if he were enjoying some good joke. Presently Betty blushed and laughed, and looked both troubled and amused at what she heard; for the bird was gabbling away and nodding his head at her in a very funny manner.

“What does he say?” asked the Princess, impatiently.

“Please don’t ask. You will not like it. I couldn’t tell,” said Betty, still laughing and blushing.

“You must tell, or I’ll have Polly’s neck wrung. I will know every word, and I won’t be angry with you, no matter what that saucy bird says,” commanded the Princess.

“He says this,” began Betty, not liking to obey, but afraid poor Polly would be hurt if she did not: “‘Now here’s a new pet for her Highness to torment. Nice, pretty little girl! Pity she came, to be made much of for a day or two and then thrown away or knocked about like an old doll. She thinks it all very fine here, poor thing! But if she knew all I know she would run away and never come back; for a crosser, more spoilt child than her Highness never lived.'”