AFTER climbing upward for a long time, they came at last to the tip-top of the pine-tree, which was on a level with the clouds. The cat waited until a large cloud sailed along pretty near them, and then, bidding Princess Hilda hold on tight, they made a spring together, and alighted very cleverly on the cloud’s edge. Off sailed the cloud with them on its back, and soon brought them to the kingdom of the Air-Spirits.

“Now, Princess Hilda,” said the cat, “you must go the rest of the way alone. Ask the first Spirit you meet to show you the way to the place where the Queen sits; and when you have found her, ask her where the Diamond Water-drop is. But be careful not to sit down, however much you may be tempted to do so; for if you do, your brother Henry never can be saved.”

Though Princess Hilda did not much like the idea of going on alone, still, since it was for her brother’s sake, she consented; only she made up her mind on no account to sit down, no matter what happened. So she bade the cat farewell, and walked off. Pretty soon, she met an Air-Spirit, carrying its nose in the air, as all Air-Spirits do.

“Can you tell me the way to the place where the Queen sits?” asked Princess Hilda.

“What do you want of her?” asked the Air-Spirit.

“I want to ask her where the Diamond Water-drop is,” answered Princess Hilda.

“She sits on the top of that large star up yonder,” said the Air-Spirit; “but unless you can carry your nose more in the air than you do, I don’t believe you will get her to tell you anything.”

Princess Hilda, however, did not feel so much like carrying her nose in the air as she had felt at any time since the black spot came upon her forehead; and she set out to climb toward the Queen’s star very sorrowfully; and all the Spirits who met her said:

“See how she hangs her head? She will never come to anything.”

But at last she arrived at the gates of the star, and walked in; and there was the Queen of the Air-Spirits sitting in the midst of it. As soon as she saw Princess Hilda, she said:

“You have come a long way, and you look very tired. Come here and sit down beside me.”

“No, your Majesty,” replied Princess Hilda, though she was really so tired that she could hardly stand, “there is no time to be lost; where is the Diamond Water-drop?”

“That is a foolish thing to come after,” said the Queen. “However, sit down here and let us talk about it. I have been expecting you.”

But Princess Hilda shook her head.

“Listen to me,” said the Queen. “I know that you like to order people around, and to make them do what you please, whether they like it or not. Now, if you will sit down here, I will let you be Queen of the Air-Spirits instead of me; you shall carry your nose in the air, and everybody shall do what you please, whether they like it or not.”

When Princess Hilda heard this, she felt for a moment very much tempted to do as the Queen asked her. But the next moment she remembered her poor little brother Henry, standing in the thousand and first corner of Rumpty-Dudget’s tower, with his face to the wall and his hands behind his back. So she cried, and said:

“Oh, Queen of the Air-Spirits, I am so sorry for my little brother that I do not care any longer to carry my nose in the air, or to make people mind me, whether they like it or not; I only want the Diamond Water-drop, so that Henry may be saved from Rumpty-Dudget’s tower. Can you tell me where it is?”

Then the Queen smiled upon her, and said:

“It is on your own cheek!”

Princess Hilda was so astonished that she could only look at the Queen without speaking.

“Yes,” continued the Queen, kindly, “you might have searched throughout all the kingdoms of the earth and air, and yet never have found that precious Drop, had you not loved your little brother Henry more than to be Queen. That tear upon your cheek, which you shed for love of him, is the Diamond Water-drop, Hilda; keep it in this little crystal bottle; be prudent and resolute, and sooner or later Henry will be free again.”

As she spoke, she held out a little crystal bottle, and the tear from Princess Hilda’s cheek fell into it, and the Queen hung it about her neck by a coral chain, and kissed her, and bade her farewell. And as Princess Hilda went away, she fancied she had somewhere heard a voice like this Queen’s before; but where or when she could not tell.

?