been animated by the fairies, so that when the child cried they rocked it, and made it sleep; a wonderful convenience for the nurses.
The fairies themselves took the little Princess upon their knees, they swathed her, and gave her more than a hundred kisses; for she was already so beautiful that no one could look at her without loving her. They said that she was hungry, and instantly they struck the ground with their wands; a nurse appeared—such a one as befitted this lovely babe. It now only remained to endow the infant, and the fairies hastened to do so. One endowed her with virtue, another with wit, a third with wonderful beauty, the next with good fortune, the fifth with continual health, and the last with the gift of doing everything well which she undertook.
The Queen, enchanted, thanked them a thousand and a thousand times for the favours they had just conferred upon the little Princess; when they perceived, entering the chamber, so large a crab, that the door was scarcely wide enough for her to pass through. "Ah! too ungrateful Queen," said the Crab, "you have not then deigned to remember me! Is it possible you have so soon forgotten the Fairy of the Fountain, and the services I rendered you, by introducing you to my sisters! What! you have summoned them all—I am alone neglected! Certainly I had a presentiment of it, and it was that which obliged me to take the form of a crab when I first spoke to you, to signify thereby that your friendship, instead of progressing, would retrograde.
The Queen, inconsolable at seeing the fault she had committed, interrupted her, and asked her pardon. She told her she thought she had named her flower with the others; that it was the bouquet of precious stones that had deceived her; that she had not been guilty of forgetting the obligations she was under to her; that she supplicated her not to deprive her of her friendship, and particularly to befriend the Princess. The fairies, who feared she would but endow the child with misery and misfortune, seconded the Queen's endeavours, to appease her. "My dear sister," said they, "let not your highness be angry with a queen who never had an idea of displeasing you. For mercy's sake quit this form of a crab, and let us behold you with all your charms."
I have already said that the Fairy of the Fountain was
