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Lived Happily Ever After
And Nichette spent half her time in the palace with the Queen, where she played at being a princess. They studied and sewed and practiced together; and on rainy mornings they had famous times in the big playroom with the shelves of toys. Nichette’s dolls went also, and shared all the fun with Mignon,—no longer the lonesomest doll, but the happiest doll in the world, because her dear little Queen-mamma loved her so well.
But the nicest times were the sunshiny days when the two children and the five dolls played out under the rosebush in the Queen’s garden. The paths were never swept nowadays, for the Queen loved to see the rose petals scattered all about and the grass long and lushy, so that one could almost hide under its cool greenness. Moreover, nowadays the fountain was always playing; and Nichette never tired of watching the great fish spout high into the air,—quite ten feet as Pierre had declared. And when the sundial showed that it was time, Clotilde would blow a little silver whistle, and a servant would bring their luncheon out under the rosebush, where they could picnic quite by them-79
