she kissed her and wept more bitterly, not knowing what to do. But with this comes the little Mouse and gets into the basket. "Oh! thou little creature," said the Queen, "how dearly has thy preservation cost me! I may, perhaps, lose on thy account my dear Joliette; any one else would have killed thee, and given thee to the dainty old woman, but I could not consent to do that." The Mouse began to say, "Do not repent of having done so, Madam; I am not so unworthy of your friendship as you think." The Queen was frightened to death when she heard the Mouse speaking; but her fear increased greatly when she perceived its little muzzle begin to take the form of a human face, that its paws became hands and feet, and that it suddenly grew larger. At length the Queen, hardly daring to look at her, recognised her to be the same Fairy who came to see her with the wicked King, and who was so kind to her. The Fairy said to her, "I wished to try your heart; I have discovered it to be good, and that you are susceptible of friendship. We Fairies, who possess immense wealth and treasures, seek only for friendship to sweeten life, and we rarely find it." "Is it possible, beautiful lady," said the Queen, embracing her, "that you have any trouble in finding friends, being so rich and powerful?" "Yes," replied she, "for they only love us from self-interest, and that affects us but little; but when you loved me as a little mouse, it was not from an interested motive. I wished to prove you still further; I took the form of an old woman; it was I who spoke to you at the foot of the tower, and you were still faithful to me." At these words she embraced the Queen, then she kissed the vermilion mouth of the little Princess, and said to her, "I endow thee, my child, to be the consolation of thy mother, and to be richer than thy father; to live a hundred years, always beautiful, without sickness, without wrinkles, and without becoming an old woman." The Queen, enchanted, thanked her, and entreated her to carry Joliette away with her, and to take care of her, adding that she gave her to her to be her own daughter. The Fairy accepted her, and thanked her; she put the baby in the basket, and lowered it to the ground; but having stopped a little, to reassume the form of the little Mouse, when she descended the cord after her, the child was not there, and reascending, much frightened, "All is lost!" said she to the Queen; "my
