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“The maximum there is ten marks,” Sweet William said, after he had finished reading the notes aloud, “and you have remembered the story well, all but the rhyme.”

“I did remember the rhyme though,” said Philomène eagerly, “and I had meant to add it, but just then the grasshopper came. The first time the fisherman says:—

‘Flounder, flounder in the sea,

Come, I pray, and talk with me,

For my wife, Dame Isabel,

Sent me here a tale to tell.’

And all the other times he says:—

‘For my wife, Dame Isabel,

Wishes what I fear to tell.’”

“Capital!” exclaimed Sweet William with enthusiasm, “Philomène rightly named, beloved of the fairies! It is not often we have the good luck to come across such a child. Now we will add up the marks. Six for the first question, three for the second, ten for the third, four for the fourth, none for the fifth, five for the sixth, five for the seventh, ten for the eighth. That makes forty-three out of fifty, which is eighty-six per cent. I congratulate you, my dear, and have much pleasure in presenting you with a latchkey, exactly like my own.”