"Over there, Princess!" he said, pointing at a graceful willow tree, with its fronds dipping into the river. "That fine tree will offer us shade and even a place for the children to climb!"

Two boats were sent out at once, and they quickly landed on the sandy shore. The boatmen hopped out and began to check out their surroundings.

"This looks very safe!" called out the sailor who had piloted the sailboat. "There's wood here, too!"

Out in the middle of the river, the others were happy to hear about a good resting place. They began to eagerly push the great raft toward the shore.

As soon as the raft touched some reeds and grass, the youngest children hopped right off the raft. They were tired from floating, floating down the river. They wanted to climb the willow tree!

They hurried up the steep, muddy river bank and found themselves in a grassy meadow near the great willow. And they found yellow daffodils, all blooming in the sunshine.

Then, with great surprise, they saw that the air was filled with flying fairies, all of them with beautiful shimmering wings.

One was sitting right in the center of a daffodil, and was staring at the children with big eyes!

The fairy had a buzzing voice, light and pretty but a little like a bee's. It was wearing a shady hat made from flower pedals, and it wore clothing made from leaves.

"Hello, River Folk!" sang the fairy in its buzzing voice. "We saw you coming down the river, with your castle floating!"

Another fairy flew down from the willow tree. "We have never seen a castle on water before," it said. "Our own castle is high in the tree!"

The children immediately wanted to see the creatures' castle.

"We would be delighted to have your royalty visit us," said the fairy who sat in a flower, "but we never allow children or regular people in our castle."

"Princess Catrina and Prince Whiskers always allow us in their house," said the children sadly.

"Then they must be nicer than we are, perhaps," said the flying fairy. "We would like to meet them."

The children ran back to the river bank, and hurried to issue the fairies' invitation.

"They are snobs, but they can fly!" said a small boy enviously.

"You can fly on your flying horse to see their tree castle," said a girl, "but I don't want to see their castle anyway."

The children climbed onto the raft and found some marshmallows, which they stuffed into their pockets for later.

Catrina and Whiskers straightened their crowns and called for the flying horse. "We will make certain these fairies are friendly," they told their subjects. "Go ahead and fry some fish. We will eat in the willow tree."

And the flying horse carried them up to the meadow, in which many fairies were flying about, waiting to escort the Prince and Princess to their Tree Castle.