CHAPTER XVII.
KING MYRTLE AND QUEEN ROSEBUD.
THUS it came about that Myrtle was, after all, a true prince; and his now happy father, having passed so many childless years, begged that the young couple might spend at least one half the time at his court. This request was cheerfully granted.
And after the death of King Brondé and his Lily Queen, which was not until they had reached a good old age, Rosebud gave up her share of the kingdom to her two sisters, that she might dwell always with Myrtle in his own country.
Thus the two sisters reigned together. The eldest, with her beauty and her grace, was an ornament to the court, and drew together the lively and the gay; while the second, with her great wisdom, sat in council with the nobles and managed with rigor the affairs of state; and their reign was called ever after “The Reign of the Two Queens.”
The old woman died, soon after telling her story, at the house of Bess and Judy, and was buried, as she herself had requested, with the blue blanket upon her head, and her staff beside her.
After the father of Myrtle died, he and Rosebud became king and queen, and reigned in his stead.
Their first act was to purchase from the king of the country adjoining their own the tract of land which contained the little fishing-hamlet by the sea; and there, by the side of the old hut, they reared a splendid palace. The hut was preserved, standing exactly as it stood in their childhood; and the little garden-spot behind—the grave of their short-lived flowers—was planted with lilies, an affectionate tribute to the memory of the Lily Queen.
The waters of the spring where Myrtle, with fear and trembling, once dared to wash his face were made to gush up through a marble fountain, around which the rose and the myrtle grew well together.
Their old companions were well cared for; and they loved their king and queen just as well as when they were children of the shore with themselves; for the good queen loved her people, and never ceased to labor for their happiness. The holy fire had never grown dim; and Myrtle, the noble-hearted Myrtle, thought and acted always with his beloved queen. In all things they went hand in hand and heart in heart; and dwellers upon the remotest borders of their kingdom found reason to bless the reign of King Myrtle and Queen Rose.
The story is ended, but there is one thing which some might care to know.
One day, as the king and queen were sitting in their private chamber, talking of the long ago, the king said: “My dear Rosebud, why was it that the Green Fairy, as she must have had the power, did not find some way of informing your parents where you were hidden, or did not come to your rescue?”
“She is here,” said a voice near them,—“she is here to answer for herself.”
They turned quickly, and there, in her own proper form, stood the Green Fairy, who spoke as follows:—
“The Green Fairy,” said she, “wished to prove whether the child Rosebud could be as gentle, as sweet-tempered, when in poverty, and exposed to harsh treatment, as when living in a palace, the idol of a court. The little fisher-boy may answer that question for himself.”
But the Green Fairy was not so entirely neglectful of the little girl. Something she could tell of a fine-feathered bird, which guided her through the woods. Something, too, of a bird-song, heard by a little girl standing alone in a dark passage.
Also of hopeful words, murmured softly from a tall flowering shrub, to a child who lay one night in the forest, looking up at the stars twinkling through the trees.
And something she could tell, too, of a white lamb and of an aged woman with pale blue eyes and dark flowing robes, who whispered to the Lily Queen of Silver Lake, and the stream which flowed to the sea.
She was at the wedding, too, looking down from above, to see that all went well with the happy ones below. Like this!
And, changing to a beautiful bird, she flew to the top of a marble column.
And while they were gazing, she began to fly slowly around the apartment, and disappeared at last through an open window. But still they heard her voice singing to them her last farewell:—
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