Before long, the elfin queen saw how patient the old king and Jim's
mother were, and how badly Nimble Jim was behaving now he was king,
for he was given up to all sorts of wickedness and tyranny, was fast
becoming hated by every one, and himself was beginning to see that he
was not nearly so happy as he had been while he was a cobbler.
Jim was really good at heart, only his unreasonable discontent with
his lot had got him into all this misery. At last, he began to repent,
and, one moonlight night when he was walking alone on the palace
terrace, he said:
"I wish I could see that little elfin queen, and I would ask her to
let me go back home again."
"Well, here I am!" said the silvery voice; and, sitting on a moonbeam
beside him, there she was. "Tired of being king, Jim?" she asked.
"Yes, your majesty, indeed I am," he replied.
"Want any more melons, Jim?" said she, laughing.
"No, no, no!" groaned Jim. "No more!"
"How is your mother, Jim?" asked her majesty.
"Alas! I don't know,"--and he hung his head in shame.
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