She kept, however, by the playmate who had first met her; for Zerina was the kindest and loveliest of them all.  Little Mary cried and cried again:  “I will stay with you forever; I will stay with you, and you shall be my sisters;” at which the children all laughed, and embraced her.  “Now, we shall have a royal sport,” said Zerina.  She ran into the palace, and returned with a little golden box, in which lay a quantity of seeds, like glittering dust.  She lifted a few with her little hand, and scattered some grains on the green earth.  Instantly the grass began to move, as in waves; and, after a few moments, bright rose-bushes started from the ground, shot rapidly up, and budded all at once, while the sweetest perfume filled the place.  Mary also took a little of the dust, and, having scattered it, she saw white lilies, and the most variegated pinks, pushing up.  At a signal from Zerina, the flowers disappeared, and others rose in their room.  “Now,” said Zerina, “look for something greater.”  She laid two pine-seeds in the ground, and stamped them in sharply with her foot.  Two green bushes stood before them.  “Grasp me fast,” said she; and Mary threw her arms about the slender form.  She felt herself borne upward; for the trees were springing under them with the greatest speed; the tall pines waved to and fro, and the two children held each other fast embraced, swinging this way and that in the red clouds of the twilight, and kissed each other, while the rest were climbing up and down the trunks with quick dexterity, pushing and teasing one another with loud laughter when they met; if any fell down in the press, they flew through the air, and sank slowly and surely to the ground.  At length Mary was beginning to be frightened; and the other little child sang a few loud tones, and the trees again sank down and set them on the ground as gently as they had lifted them before to the clouds.

They next went through the brazen door of the palace.  Here many fair women, elderly and young, were sitting in the round hall, partaking of the fairest fruits and listening to glorious invisible music.  In the vaulting of the ceiling, palms, flowers, and groves stood painted, among which little figures of children were sporting and winding in every graceful posture; and with the tones of the music, the images altered and glowed with the most burning colors; now the blue and green were sparkling like radiant light, now these tints faded back in paleness, the purple flamed up, and the gold took fire; and then the naked children seemed to be alive among the flower-garlands, and to draw breath and emit it through their ruby-colored lips; so that by turns you could see the glance of their little white teeth, and the lighting up of their azure eyes.