Tessie Hare, though being only minutes younger than her sisters, had always been the baby of her family. She was easily the sweetest and most sensitive of the brood, not to mention the "girly girl". She generally wore these titles on her sleeve. However, once in a blue moon she wished she could be recognized as something more meaningful. Each of her siblings embodied a certain special trait that marked and defined their personalities; whether it was boldness, curiosity, wisdom, or musical talent. These, Tessie felt, were characteristics that would surely lead them to do great things someday. But her? What great things could she accomplish simply by being sweet and innocent? But one fateful day, the answer to this question was finally answered.

One day, all four Hare girls were eager to get out of the kitchen for a while. It was a nice day and the four of them felt like playing jumprope out in the fresh air. The trouble was that none of them had any idea where their jumprope was.

"Daisy had it last," said Ria, which meant that it could have been anywhere.

So the girls began retracing their steps, going around to all the places they knew best in and around the castle; their bedroom, the kitchen, the ground floor corridor, the courtyard. No luck.

"Well, there is the front garden," Trixie suggested.

So that's just where they went. The front garden was enormous and there were many shrubs and flowerbeds. Any number of them could have been concealing the thing the girls coveted. With this in mind, they decided to split up and look in different directions.

Tessie wondered over to a long row of perfectly trimmed shrubs on the far side of the garden. Once there, she got down on all fours and began searching the shady undersides of each individual shrub one by one. After looking under the first six plants and finding nothing, she glanced under the seventh…

Then she froze. Something had caught her eye, though she knew at once that it was not the jumprope. No jumprope gave off a dazzling white glow when exposed to a small ray of sunlight. Brow furrowed, Tessie looked again in the spot where she had seen it and could've sworn she had caught a glint of red this time. Intrigued, Tessie reached a hand down to touch whatever it was. It felt cold, solid, and metallic. She grabbed hold of whatever it was a pulled it out through the shrub's lower branches and into the sunlight. There in her hands was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life. It was a silver tiara, such as a queen might wear, glittering with at least a dozen different-sized rubies.

"Wow."

Tessie stared at the thing, transfixed. She turned it this way and that, admiring it from all angles. After memorizing it forwards and backwards, she looked up to call out to her sisters.

"Hey! Look what I found!"

"The jumprope?" asked Trixie from several yards away.

"No. Even better!" Tessie answered.

The others ran forward and gathered around her looking curious.

"Look!" she exclaimed, holding the tiara out for all to see.

"Wow," they said.

"Silver and rubies," said Ria.

"I know! Isn't it beautiful?" agreed Tessie. "And to think it was just lying around under this shrub," she added as an afterthought. "Someone must've lost it."

"I wonder who it used to belong to?" said Trixie.

"Must've been some long dead queen or princess. The only two royals around here these days are both male," Ria pointed out, referring to Bambi and King Barron.

"Well since no one's gonna miss it, I guess that means it's yours now, Tessie!" said Daisy brightly, as though congratulating her sister on winning a grand prize of one thousand gold coins.

"Mine?" Tessie asked uncertainly.

"Sure! You found it. And you know what they say: finders, keepers," said Daisy.

"I don't know," said Tessie, looking down at the tiara. "It isn't the same as finding a coin in the street. This is really valuable and it used to belong to someone important. It almost feels like stealing."

Trixie scoffed. "How can it be stealing if its owner isn't even around anymore? Besides, whoever they were, they probably didn't think too much of it if they just left it there in the dirt."

"Exactly!" said Daisy, as though this theory proved her point.

Tessie considered both their points and looked at the tiara again.

"Well, it is pretty. And I guess there's no point in leaving it here to rust," she said. Then, feeling she might as well get a third opinion, she said, "Ria, what do you think?"

"Well, I do think they have a point," sounding a little uncertain herself. "I think it might be a good idea to show this to the king or Prince Bambi, just to be safe… But in the meantime, I suppose there's no harm in holding onto it for safekeeping."

"There you have it! Try it on, Tessie!" said Daisy, as though she had not heard the first part of Ria's answer. "Go ahead!"

Tessie grinned nervously . "How do I look?" she asked.

"Gorgeous!" exclaimed Daisy.

"Like a queen," agreed Trixie.

"It does suit you," said Ria, truthfully if somewhat skeptically.

Tessie felt whatever doubts she was feeling vanish. "Really?"

"Gee, I wonder what else we can find under these shrubs," said Trixie, looking around eagerly.

"It'd sure be nice if we could find the jumprope," said Ria humorlessly.

By the time the girls found their jumprope (in the potato patch outside Florean's house), it was too late for them to play with it as they were needed back in the kitchen. So they made their way back to the castle and down to the kitchen feeling as though their entire morning had been wasted. Except for Tessie, who still felt she had found something far better than what she had been looking for. When she and her sisters reached the kitchen, she briefly muttered that she needed to wash her hands. So she excused herself to the family's sleeping quarters and, after making sure it was empty, shut the door behind her and withdrew her newfound treasure from her pocket. She then placed it on her head again and looked at herself in the mirror mounted on her dresser. She could see now that her sisters were not exaggerating when they said it suited her. It looked better than ever when it was on her head.

"What do you think, Flo?" she asked, looking into the glass case on the dresser that housed her new pet.

Flo the turtle simply stood there on his favorite rock, silent and still as a statue.

"My thoughts exactly," Tessie said brightly, remembering Daisy's words. "Finders, keepers."

The next day, the weather could not have been more different. It was dark and stormy outside and Tessie and the others were confined inside, even during their free time. Desperate for entertainment, the four of them stripped their beds of all pillows and blankets and built a pretend castle.

"Funny how we're doing this when we're already in a castle," Daisy commented to no one in particular.

When the castle was finished, the girls took a minute to admire it.

"Okay, who's gonna be the queen?" asked Trixie.

"Shouldn't it be you?" Daisy asked her. "You're the oldest."

Ria made a "What difference does that make?" face.

"Nah," said Trixie dismissively. "Being queen's boring. I wanna be a knight. One of you can be queen."

"Me!" shouted Tessie, Ria, and Daisy at once.

To settle the issue, they decided that she who had the most valid reason for wanting to be queen would be the one to sit on the pretend throne.

"Just 'cause," Daisy answered brightly when asked her reason.

The other three exchanged looks. "You're out," they all said.

Daisy pouted.

"I'd be better at running a kingdom," said Ria smugly.

"Yeah well, I know how to accessorize like a queen," Tessie smiled. She then walked over to her dresser, opened the topmost drawer, and pulled out the silver tiara. "I hereby dub myself…" she announced, placing it carefully between her honey blonde pigtails, "… Queen Tessie!"

"Fair point," Trixie admitted, admiring the tiara. "Okay, Tessie it is."

Ria pouted, looking surprisingly similar to how Daisy had looked mere moments earlier. "No fair. I don't wanna be a knight."

"Don't worry," Tessie told her. "You can be… my royal advisor."

"Hm," said Ria thoughtfully, raising an eyebrow.

A short while later, "Queen" Tessie was seated on her makeshift throne, crown on her head and making all sorts of orders and royal decrees. No matter how ridiculous these were, her sisters obediently nodded, bowed, and obliged. It felt as if they truly were a queen, her royal advisor, and knights. All they needed was a prisoner to hold hostage. Then they found one when Theodore came around to see what they were up to.

"Enjoy this while it lasts," he told them as Trixie and Daisy clumsily bound him with their jumprope.

"Silence, prisoner!" ordered Tessie.

Theodore glared and opened his mouth to object.

"The queen has spoken," said Ria, holding up a hand.

Theodore sighed and fell reluctantly silent. Then he had to endure several humiliating minutes of being treated as much like a real prisoner as was possible for his sisters to do. When Tessie requested tea and biscuits, Theodore complained that he was hungry too. So Tessie had the others bring him a bowl of water and a slice of bread. Trixie and Daisy grinned broadly as they hand fed him, though he looked about ready to burst free of his bindings and chase them around the room.

Tessie was especially enjoying herself. Wearing a real crown and giving out orders, even if it was just for play, made her feel like a real queen. Better yet, it made her feel important. For the first time in her life, she felt she was more than just the baby of the family. Keeping the tiara was beginning to feel more and more like the right decision. She should have known the feeling was too good to last.

A short while later, Bambi and Florean came knocking to see if their best friend was about. You can imagine their shock when they walked into the room to find him tied up and drinking water from a bowl.

"What's this?" Bambi asked, looking somewhere between concerned and amused.

"Thank goodness," Theodore sighed.

"Intruders!" squealed Tessie. "Guards, I command you to protect your queen!"

Trixie and Daisy obediently withdrew their swords (which were really carrots), and shouted, "Halt in the name of the queen!"

They had only managed to frighten Florean, who was now whimpering behind Bambi.

"Who are you and what do you want?" said Daisy.

"Enemy soldiers, no doubt. Come to rescue their captured comrade," said Trixie, looking back at Theodore.

"Help me!" Theodore said to his friends in a raised whisper.

"We just wanted to see if Theodore could come play Go Fish," said Bambi slowly.

"So yes!" Trixie said triumphantly, raising her "sword" a bit higher.

"Careful with that," said Florean.

"You realize that's a carrot, right?" Bambi asked him.

"Silence, knaves!" barked Trixie, making Florean tremble more.

"If you want to free our prisoner, you'll have to get through us first!" ordered Daisy. She then withdrew two more carrots and held them out to Bambi and Florean. "Here, you'll need these," she added in a whisper.

Bambi and Florean looked at each other and then, not saying a word, each took a carrot.

"Hm, the armies are evenly matched, Your Majesty," said Ria, sizing up the situation. "Although the enemy does have the advantage of possessing more physical strength… for the most part," she added, looking at Florean.

Florean, though still trembling, glowered at her. Bambi looked as though he was fighting a strong urge to laugh.

Then Tessie got to her feet and said, "These intruders are no match for our brave soldiers. They were able to bring down this one." She pointed at Theodore. "Two more shouldn't be a challenge, no matter their size…"

"Wait," said Bambi suddenly.

Everyone looked at him. Tessie saw that his eyes seemed to be fixed on her, or rather above her.

"Tessie, what's that on your head?" he asked, stepping forward with his hand extended.

She realized then that he was looking at the tiara on her head.

Trixie and Daisy blocked Bambi's path with their pretend swords. "HALT!" they barked.

"Your Majesty!" Ria said to Tessie. "This knave coveteth the royal diadem!"

"Yeah, and he's trying to steal your crown too!" said Daisy.

Ria rolled her eyes.

"I'm breaking character," Bambi said to them, handing Daisy back the carrot she had given him and pushing past her and Trixie.

"Can I see that for a second?" he asked Tessie.

Feeling slightly uneasy, she nodded, removed the tiara from her head and handed it to him. He took it and examined it so thoroughly, one would have thought he was inspecting it for toxic substances.

"Where'd you get this?" he asked.

Tessie shuffled her feet and shyly answered, "I found it."

"Where?" he persisted.

"Under a shrub in the front garden. It's not yours, is it?" she asked, rather pitifully.

"Course not," said Bambi, laughing slightly. Then he said in a less jovial tone, "It was my mother's."

Tessie looked at her sisters and assumed the look on her face matched theirs to a tee. "Oh," was all she could say.

"Yeah. This was her favorite tiara," Bambi said with a reminiscent smile. "She lost it a couple years before she died. Actually, I lost it."

Tessie, along with everyone else, stared at Bambi as he sat down upon one of the stripped beds.

"You remember, don't you fellows?" Bambi asked, addressing the still bound Theodore and Florean. "We were playing Pirates, I think, and we needed something to use for buried treasure. So I went to my mother's room and…" He held up the tiara and smiled weakly. "… grabbed the first thing I could find."

"You mean you took your mother's tiara without permission?" asked Trixie, sounding both aghast and impressed.

"I was five. I didn't know any better," Bambi shrugged. "But yeah, I took it. And then I hid it. Then I forgot where I hid it. And the rest is history. Boy, did my mother ever give me an earful," he said, shaking his head at the memory.

"I remember that," Theodore nodded. "That must've been the only time she ever got mad at you."

"So she never saw it again?" Tessie asked, a lump in her throat.

Bambi shook his head. "All these years, I've been hoping someone would find it so I could… I don't know, just do something special with it. You know, as a way of making it up to my mother." He eyed the tiara lovingly and said, "She's wearing it in that painting of me and her in the hall outside my room. I always thought of maybe having a bust of her made and putting this on her head and… You wouldn't mind, would you, Tessie?"

"Well… I guess not," Tessie said awkwardly. Then she eyed the tiara again and thought of all that it had given her since she'd found it. "It's just that it's so gorgeous. And wearing it makes me feel so great and…"

"I understand," Bambi sighed. Then he held the tiara out to her and said, "Here. You can have it. It's yours."

For a moment, Tessie didn't make a move or utter a sound. She looked from the beautiful trinket it Bambi's hand to the prince himself, noticing a hint of disappointment in his brown eyes. Then she looked around at everyone else, who likewise looked quite unsure of what to make of the situation.

"I, uh…I don't want it if it's not gonna make you happy," she said earnestly to Bambi.

"No, really. It's fine," he insisted, placing the tiara into her hand. "I'll bet my mother would want it to be put to some use. Anyway, I'm just glad someone found it. Enjoy it, Tessie."

He got up. He and Florean untied Theodore (they met no resistance from the girls, who seemed to have lost the desire to go on playing Knights) and the three of them left the room quietly.

Tessie stood rooted to the spot feeling none too great about what had just happened.

"Well, it was really nice of him to let you keep it," Daisy said with a smile. "And you're the one who found it in the first place. Finders, keepers. Remember?"

If this was an attempt to cheer Tessie up, it had failed miserably. "Then why does it feel so… wrong?" she asked.

Daisy's smile vanished.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Tessie asked, eyes on Ria.

"Maybe this is something you should decide for yourself," her wisest sister suggested.

"C'mon," said Trixie to the other two. "Let's go see if Mama and Papa need help with something."

She, Ria, and Daisy gave Tessie one last look and then left her alone to ponder.

Tessie sat on the edge of her bed, feeling very much torn in two. She appreciated that Bambi had at least asked her if he could have the tiara back, but at the same time she really didn't want to part with it. Aside from being the most beautiful thing she had ever possessed, it had given her a whole new identity. For a good part of the day, her siblings had revered her, heeded her word, and treated her like a real queen all because she had been wearing a crown. True, it had all been for play, but what did it matter? It had still made her feel important and admired, two things she had so rarely felt in her short life.

And yet, deep down she felt that it was wrong. The tiara had belonged to Bambi's late mother, whom he missed very much. And he had hoped and waited for years for someone to find it so that he could posthumously restore it to her. Not to mention, he had been the one who had lost it and he seemed to have lived with that guilt for quite some time. Anyway, what good was she, Tessie, really putting it to besides using it as a prop in a silly game?

So she made her decision…

Some days later, per Bambi's instructions, a newly sculptured bust of Queen Vera was erected in the hall just outside his bedroom, beside a large painting of the two of them holding hands. Bambi, in the presence of Tessie and the other girls, King Barron, Faline, Theodore, Florean, and Oswald, carefully placed his mother's beloved tiara onto the statue's curls. It fit like a glove. Then he stood back to admire it.

"This was really sweet of you to do this for your mother," Faline said fondly to him.

"Well I won't take all the credit. Tessie's the one who made it possible," Bambi said, looking down at his youngest friend.

"Oh, it was nothing," Tessie said modestly, trying not to blush.

"No it wasn't," said Bambi assuredly. "I know how much you wanted to keep that thing. Heck, I even let you keep it."

Tessie shrugged. "Yeah well, I guess I just realized how much it meant to you and your mother and decided you needed it more than I did," she said, as though she thought she had just done what anyone would have done.

King Barron seemed to think otherwise.

"That was a very decent thing to do, dear one," he said to her proudly.

Tessie smiled innocently, then looked again at the tiara glittering on the replica of the late queen's head. "I'm gonna miss wearing it, though," she said rather longingly. "The few days I had it were some of the best of my life. I felt like a real queen when I wore it."

Barron smiled. "You'll find that it takes much more than a crown to make someone royal. What's in here…" he said, pointing to his chest, "… is of much more worth than silver and rubies."

Tessie said nothing.

"And you, Daisy," the king said suddenly. "I hope you've learned something from this experience as well."

Daisy, caught off guard, tried to look as though she didn't know what he was talking about. Then she noticed everyone looking expectantly at her and said, "Okay, okay. Next time I'll think before I say finders, keepers."

Tessie was only half listening. The king's final words to her had given her much to think about. And think she did. She thought again of how good she had felt in wearing the tiara, as though it alone had made her a queen. Then she thought of the difficult decision she had made in giving up something she had been very fond of. Yet, oddly enough, she felt no regrets in doing so. Her decision had greatly pleased Bambi and it had allowed him to do something he'd been wanting to do for years. This gave her much greater satisfaction than some silly trinket.

Tessie felt immensely proud of herself thereafter. She had managed to do something great for a friend just by being her usual kind, sensitive self. She remembered King Barron's wise words to her and felt that her simple act of kindness made her feel more royal than the tiara ever did.