Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/180

 was straining within him at the thought of seeing his wife Golden Hood and the little child that had been born to him and to her.

He came to his father's city again, and with great rejoicings he was brought to the palace. His father, the Emperor, was in the hall of the embassies. After Valentine looked on Golden Hood and the little child sleeping, he went to where his father was.

And then he saw the embassy that had come to his father. From the great Prester John it had come. And in the embassy, all dressed in golden coats, were many of the children who had followed the Piper out of the Wood of Daylight-Gone.

Tom-Tom, the Piper's son, was there; he was now chief over all the King's bandsmen; Jack Snipe, Jack Sprat, and Jack Horner, who fed the King's purple fishes, were there, and Robin and Richard and Nancy who had charge of the whole muster of peacocks. All was well with the rest of the children. They thought that