On hearing this the sailor fingered the nut in his pocket and looked at the bird, and was just going to give it to him, when Trevina laid her hand on his arm to stop him, and turning to the eagle said—
“It is no use your asking for the nut, for he will not give it to you. I know quite well that you have no little eaglets at home, that it is all false, and that you only say it to get the nut from him.”
Then the eagle turned, and, giving one fearful shriek, rose into the air and flew away, and Rupert and Trevina never saw him more.
A whole year had passed away since the Queen had dreamt the strange dream, and still her head was bald; and no one could tell how to make the hair grow again. Men had sought far and wide. The King had sent messengers to every part of the world. All sorts of strange plants had been brought and stranger remedies suggested. But it was quite evident that no one had found the real Hair Tree.
The Queen had been ill for months, and now scarcely ever appeared in public. At last, when she had quite made up her mind that she would never recover her hair, she sent for the King, and told him that she was seriously thinking of shutting herself up for the rest of her life, and would only consent again to appear on the condition that he should order that all the women in the land should have their heads shaved and wear caps just like hers. The King, in great consternation, begged her to reconsider her decision, but she was firm, and as he could not bear the thought of parting with her, he at last consented to publish a proclamation ordering that all the women in the country, from the greatest duchess to the poorest beggar, were to have their heads shaved, in order that the Queen might not be annoyed by the sight of their hair.
Great was the anger and discontent with which this order was received, but the people dared not disobey the King, so after a great deal of grumbling they agreed to submit in silence, and a day was settled on which the shaving was to take place, for the Queen wished it to be performed in public.
At her suggestion the King had an immense scaffold put up in the marketplace, and on it the court barber was to stand, whilst all the women, from the highest to the lowest, came before him in turn and had their heads shaved quite close. State seats were erected on one side, on which the King and Queen and court would sit to watch the shaving.
When all this was settled, the Queen grew as cheerful as possible. She said it was almost as good as having her own hair back again.
The different messengers whom the King had sent in search of the Hair Tree still kept returning, each one bringing with him some strange new plant, but nothing that could do the Queen any good; and thus the time passed till the shaving day came.
All the streets were hung with black, and the chair in which the ladies were to sit to be shaved was hung with black also.
Early in the morning a great crowd had assembled, and then the King and Queen came down and took seats, and the shaving was to begin.
The crier took out his list of the ladies’ names, and called out the first, which was that of a duchess who was quite young and very beautiful. She rose slowly from her seat, sobbing bitterly, and walked towards the black chair.
She was dressed in a long black serge dress, without any ornament, but her beautiful white neck and arms were bare, and over her shoulders to her waist rippled her bright soft brown hair. She looked so young and so miserable that there was a general groan at the idea that all her lovely locks must fall.
With a last sob, the duchess took her seat in the dreadful chair, and, closing her eyes, resigned herself to her fate. The barber sharpened his razor, and was just going to begin, whilst all held their breath from excitement, when a voice was heard crying “Stop!” And in a minute all saw a sailor rushing towards the scaffold, panting and out of breath, but holding out something in his right hand.
“Stop!” he shouted, as loudly as he could, directly he found breath to speak. “I have got it the hair seeds from the real Hair Tree!”
On hearing this the barber flung away his razor, and the Queen screamed outright.
The courtiers and the King danced a jig for joy, whilst the duchess who was to have been shaved, threw her arms round the sailor’s neck, and kissed him at once.
“Only try” cried Rupert, eagerly, “before you shave them; they came from the Hair Tree. I picked them myself.”
On hearing this, the Queen, unable to contain her impatience any longer, dashed through the crowd, and pushing the duchess on one side. Sprang into the black chair herself.
“There is no time like the present” she cried pulling off her muslin cap, and flinging it to the ground, quite heedless of showing her bare shining head to the crowd. “Put some on yourself, dear sailor, and let us see how they do.”
A thrill of excitement ran through the crowd, whilst, amidst a dead silence, Rupert opened the packet, and carefully and slowly sprinkled the seeds over the Queen’s bent head. In a moment a soft fine down began to appear all over it, growing thicker and darker every moment, till it was curly hair, which grew longer and longer as they watched it.
“How does it do?” gasped the Queen. “My head feels very queer. Is it growing?” But she had little need
