“By the time breakfast was over, the sun was well up, and all in the city went about the day’s business.  There was much building going on, for the place was densely populated and was growing rapidly.  Great blocks were rising, story upon story, every part going on at the same time, with halls and galleries and closets and winding staircases, all connected and leading into each other, after a curious and wonderful fashion.  Of course it took a great many workmen to construct these buildings—­carpenters, masons, bricklayers, plasterers, besides architects and engineers; for the houses were all built on scientific principles, and there were under-ground passages to be built that required great skill and practical knowledge in their construction.

“The mortar and bricks were made outside the city gates, and all day gangs of workers journeyed back and forth to bring in supplies.  They were hurrying, bustling, busy, but in good order and at perfect understanding with each other.  If one stopped to exchange greetings with an acquaintance, to hear a bit of gossip perhaps, or to tell the latest news, he would pick up his load in a great hurry and start off at a round trot, as though he meant to make up for lost time.  More than one overburdened worker was eased of a part of his load, some good-natured comrade adding it to his own.  Thousands of bricks and as many loads of mortar were brought into the city by these industrious people every day, and their work was done quietly, thoroughly, and with wonderful quickness and precision.

“All this while there was plenty of indoor work going on; and the queen’s body-guard, the babies’ nurses, the attendants on the princes and princesses, the waiters and tenders, the sweepers and cleaners—­all were as busy as you please.  It was a pretty sight to see the nurses bring the babies out-of-doors for a sun-bath.  The plump little things—­some of them wrapped in mantles of white or yellow silk, others with only their skins to cover them—­were laid down in soft spots on the grass, where they were watched with the tenderest care by their foster-mothers.  If they were hungry, they had but to open their mouths and there was plenty of food ready for them.  If so much as a breath of wind stirred the grass, or a little cloud obscured the sun, every nurse snatched a baby and scampered back with it to the nursery, lest it should take cold.

“At noon the queen, attended by her body-guard, made a royal progress through the city.  She was of a portly presence, had pretty silky hair, and was dressed plainly in dark velvet.  The little princesses wore ruffles and silk mantillas, of all the colors of the rainbow; but the queen-mother had far more important business to attend to than the adornment of her person, and in her self-devotion to her commonwealth had long ago, of her own free will, laid aside flounces and furbelows.  What a good motherly body she was! and how devoted her subjects were to her!