“Jack, Jack!” and he saw the smoke clearing away.
There, in the middle of the room, stood the Princess Pyra—the same, yet not the same; and beside her was Prince Fluvius, like himself in face and figure, and yet altered. His arm was about the Princess, and she leaned her head on his shoulder.
She was no longer surrounded by flames, and the weird brightness had passed from her face and dress.
Her hair looked softer and glittered less, and her eyes no longer seemed to burn, but beamed on Jack with a soft, mild light. The coloured catherine-wheel had disappeared from her bosom, and in its place was a bunch of real water-lilies. The Prince was no less changed. His eyes were bright and clear, his hair had lost its wet gloss, and was dry and curly; his clothes looked crisp and firm.
The Princess bent her head with a sob, and this time real tears fell from her eyes. The Prince stooped to kiss them away, and as he did so the clock began to strike twelve, and all the bells in the great city rang out to tell the world that the New Year was born. And as they rang, the room was filled with the strangest forms. Fairies, goblins, elves, beautiful, ugly, and strange, floated in at the open window, and pressed around the Prince and Princess, and filled every nook and corner of the room. But they all looked kindly at Jack, and smiled at him, whilst he sat and cried for joy. With every stroke of the clock, with every clash of the bells, their number increased, but at the sixth stroke, the young couple rose from the ground, and began to float slowly towards the window.
“Goodbye, little Jack; we shall never forget you,” called the Princess, as she floated away, and she waved her hand and smiled sweetly.
“Goodbye, little Jack,” echoed the Prince; “we shall come when you want us;” and as the clock struck the last stroke of twelve they passed out of the window. But still the Princess looked back, and kissed her hand. Then all the strange company who had filled the room a moment before, arose and floated away around the Prince and Princess, and the room was left empty and cold, and little Jack was left alone.
A whole year had passed away, and Jack was turned seven years old. A whole long year, and he had heard or seen nothing of his fairy friends.
He had stirred the fire, he had watched the water, but in vain. They had gone, he feared, never to return, and he was fast beginning to think it must all have been a strange dream.
Christmas had come round again, but this was a very different Christmas to last year’s, for little Jack was very ill, sick unto death, and lay in bed and could not move. His mother went out to no parties, for all day and night she sat by her little boy’s bedside. How she cried! Jack could not quite understand why, for, when he was not in pain, he liked very well to lie in bed, with his mother sitting beside him to pet and amuse him.
Christmas week passed, and New Year’s-eve came. His mother was so weary with watching, that she could keep awake no longer, and slept in spite of herself, in the armchair at the bedside.
Jack lay still, looking at the bright new moon through the window. A white crisp layer of snow covered the housetops, on which the moon’s light shone silver and clear. As he lay and watched, the candle flickered down in its socket, and then went out altogether.
“This time last year I saw the Princess,” said Jack to himself, “but I shan’t see her again,” and he sighed.
“Little Jack,” called a low sweet voice that made him start and tremble.
He looked up at the window, and there, standing in a moonbeam, was the Princess, looking far more beautiful even than before, and the Prince stood close beside her.
“Did you think you would never see us again?” she asked. “But this will be for the last time, for we are going to live on the other side of the moon, and shall never come back again. Now see what we have brought you. This is a magic belt, and we have been a whole year making it. You must put it on, and it will make you quite strong, and in a few years you will no longer be a cripple.”
Jack then saw that between them they bore a kind of silver hoop, which they carried to the bedside, and the Princess said—
“No one will know it is there, for directly it is upon you it will become invisible. Neither will you feel it yourself. Now sit up, and I will put it on for you.”
“Thank you, dear Princess,” said Jack, sitting up in bed.
Then the Prince and Princess slipped the belt over Jack’s head, and fastened it round his waist, but when it was on he could neither feel nor see it.
“Then farewell, dear little Jack,” said they. “This time we part forever.” And the Princess stooped and kissed Jack on his forehead. Such a kiss it was, he had never felt anything so nice in his life.
“Goodbye, dear, kind Princess,” he said, huskily, stretching out his hands towards her, for he felt very sad at the thought that he should never see her again.
Then both Prince and Princess floated up the moonbeam, and the Princess looked back and kissed her hand as before, and they flew out of the window, and Jack never saw them again.
But the next day, when the doctor came, he said Jack was much better, and would soon be well, and it was all the new medicine he had given him.
And when Jack told his mother about the Princess, and the wonderful belt he wore, she only shook her head
