'Did you ever see anybody so happy?
Why can't I have mud to dabble in too, and why can't I take off my shoes and stockings, and amuse myself like the children do, instead of being so dull and stuck-up all day long ?' "'Because it isn't proper for queens to dabble in the mud,' said the poor king in great perplexity, for he didn't at all like the idea of his beautiful queen dabbling in the mud with the little ragged children.
"'That's just like you,' said the queen, beginning to cry faster than ever,' you never do anything to please me.

What's the good of being proper?
What's the good of being a queen at all ?' "This made the king very unhappy, and again he thought and thought, till at last he hit upon a plan.

He ordered a very large shallow bath of white marble to be made in the palace-garden.

Then he poured into it all kinds of precious stones, and chips of sweet-smelling wood, besides a thousand cartloads of rose-leaves and a thousand cartloads of orange flowers.

All these he ordered to be stirred up together with a great ivory spoon, till they made a kind of wonderful mud, and then he had the bath filled up with scented water.
"'Now then,' he said to the queen, when he had brought her down to look at it, 'you may take off your shoes and stockings and paddle about in this mud as much as you like.' You may imagine that this was a very pleasant kind of mud to dabble in, and the queen and her ladies amused themselves with it immensely for some time.