"Oh, no, no," exclaimed the children, "as easy as possible. Here, take hold of our hands, and set your foot on that sort of bump lower down, then you can walk up like going up-stairs."
They stretched out their hands, and in a moment Nessa was seated in the tree.
"Shamrocks and Shillelaghs! There's Mr. Plunkett out again, and he's seen you, Nessa," cried Winnie, in delight, "and oh, he does look so jolly shocked!"
Nessa was enchanted with her novel position. "Never mind Mr. Plunkett," she said gaily. "Let us read the letters now."
"What shall we be to-day?" said Winnie. "Nessa couldn't be a squirrel exactly, you know."
"We'll be Irish kings and queens," said Murtagh, "and Nessa will be a stranger who has brought us these letters from a far-away king."
"Oh, yes," said Winnie. "And you'll live with us, and we'll discover you're an Irish princess who was stolen away when she was a baby."
"Now," said Murtagh, when the letters were quite finished, "come along with us, and we'll show you our dominions."
"Yes," said Rosie. "It's too bad; she's been here a whole week, and we've never shown her our islands, nor nut-wood, nor the mushroom-field, nor the mountains."
"I'll tell you what, Myrrh," exclaimed Winnie, struck by a sudden inspiration, "we'll have a picnic up the mountains on your birthday. What do you think of that?"
"Yes," said Murtagh, "and oh, Win, a plan has just come into my head. Such a beauty! I'll tell you presently."
"Yes. But I'll tell you too, by and by. Oh, it is so jolly; you'll go crazy when you hear it." And being unable to turn head over heels Murtagh relieved his feelings by springing to the ground.
Having once got into the tree, Nessa would gladly have spent the morning there. But the children had no notion of allowing the appreciation of their roost to take that form, and for the next two or three hours she was trotted backwards and forwards from one favorite place to another, till when twelve o'clock came she was glad to go with the children to the back door and receive at Donnie's hands a glass of milk and a slice of brown cake. Then, leaving Nessa to enter the house alone, they merrily scampered back to the chestnut tree to hold their consultation.
Their wonderful plan was simply this: that they were to discover Nessa to be the real princess of their tribe, and on Murtagh's birthday they were to have on the mountains the grand ceremony of crowning and receiving her into the tribe. It was the details of the plan that were so specially delightful, Murtagh said; particularly one.