When the cock crowed the third time the fiddles stopped , and a delicious supper was served by negro boys , consisting of sugared orange flowers , crystallised rose leaves , powdered violets , cracknels , wafers , and other dishes , which are , as everyone knows , the favourite food of princesses . After supper , the dancers all went back to their boats , and this time the Star Gazer entered that of the eldest Princess . They crossed again the wood with the diamond-spangled leaves , the wood with gold-sprinkled leaves , and the wood whose leaves glittered with drops of silver , and as a proof of what he had seen , the boy broke a small branch from a tree in the last wood . Lina turned as she heard the noise made by the breaking of the branch . ` What was that noise ? ' she said . ` It was nothing , ' replied her eldest sister ; ` it was only the screech of the barn-owl that roosts in one of the turrets of the castle . ' While she was speaking Michael managed to slip in front , and running up the staircase , he reached the princesses ' room first . He flung open the window , and sliding down the vine which climbed up the wall , found himself in the garden just as the sun was beginning to rise , and it was time for him to set to his work . X That day , when he made up the bouquets , Michael hid the branch with the silver drops in the nosegay intended for the youngest Princess . When Lina discovered it she was much surprised . However , she said nothing to her sisters , but as she met the boy by accident while she was walking under the shade of the elms , she suddenly stopped as if to speak to him ; then , altering her mind , went on her way . The same evening the twelve sisters went again to the ball , and the Star Gazer again followed them and crossed the lake in Lina 's boat . This time it was the Prince who complained that the boat seemed very heavy . ` It is the heat , ' replied the Princess . ` I , too , have been feeling very warm . ' During the ball she looked everywhere for the gardener 's boy , but she never saw him . As they came back , Michael gathered a branch from the wood with the gold-spangled leaves , and now it was the eldest Princess who heard the noise that it made in breaking . ` It is nothing , ' said Lina ; ` only the cry of the owl which roosts in the turrets of the castle . ' XI As soon as she got up she found the branch in her bouquet .
When the sisters went down she stayed a little behind and said XXXXX the cow-boy : ` Where does this branch come from ? '
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