When the Princess Melisande was born, her mother, the queen, wished to have a christening party, but the king puts his foot down and said he would not have it.
"I've seen to much trouble come of christening parties," said he. "However carefully you keep your visiting-books, some fairy is sure to get left out? and you know what that leads to. We'll have no nonsense about it. We won't ask a single fairy, then none of them can be offended."
"Unless they all are," said the queen.
And that was exactly what happened. When the king and queen and the baby got back from the christening the great throne room was crammed with fairies of all ages and of all degrees of beauty and uglines — good fairies and bad fairies, flower fairies and moon fairies, fairies like spiders and fairies like butterflies — and as the queen opened the door they all cried, with one voice, "Why didn't you ask me to your christening party?"
"I'm very sorry?" aaid the poor queen, but Malevola pushed forward and said, "Hold your tongue," most rudely.
Malevola is the oldest, as well as the most wicked, of the fairies. "Don't begin to make excuses," she said, shaking her finger at the queen.
"You know well enough what happens if a fairy is left out of a christening party. We are all going to give our christening presents now. I shall begin. The princess shall be bald."
