with him. She put on her sweetest manner and looks; and as she did so, the little face at the foot of the bed grew more troubled, and the little head shook itself, and the little thumb dropped out of the little mouth.
“Dear Colin,” said the queen, “you shall have the girl. But you must do something for me first.”
The little girl shook her head as fast as ever she could, but Colin was taken up with the queen.
“To be sure I will. What is it?” he said.
And so he was bound by a new bargain, and was in the queen’s power.
“You must fetch me a bottle of Carasoyn,” said she.
“What is that?” asked Colin.
“A kind of wine that makes people happy.”
“Why, are you not happy already?”
“No, Colin,” answered the queen, with a sigh.
“You have everything you want.”
“Except the Carasoyn,” returned the queen.
“You do whatever you like, and go wherever you please.”
“That’s just it. I want something that I neither like nor please—that I don’t know anything about. I want a bottle of Carasoyn.”
And here she cried like a spoilt child, not like a sorrowful woman.
“But how am I to get it?”
“I don’t know. You must find out.”