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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30400-h.zip b/30400-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a88a18d --- /dev/null +++ b/30400-h.zip diff --git a/30400-h/30400-h.htm b/30400-h/30400-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d364a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/30400-h/30400-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6647 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of All the Way to Fairyland, by Evelyn Sharp +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +H3.h3left { margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 1%; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: left ; + clear: left ; + text-align: center } + +H3.h3right { margin-left: 1%; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: right ; + clear: right ; + text-align: center } + +H3.h3center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +H4.h4left { margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 1%; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: left ; + clear: left ; + text-align: center } + +H4.h4right { margin-left: 1%; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: right ; + clear: right ; + text-align: center } + +H4.h4center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +H5.h5left { margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 1%; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: left ; + clear: left ; + text-align: center } + +H5.h5right { margin-left: 1%; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: right ; + clear: right ; + text-align: center } + +H5.h5center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgleft { float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: 1%; + padding: 0; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgright {float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1%; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgcenter { margin-left: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: auto; } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of All the Way to Fairyland, by Evelyn Sharp + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: All the Way to Fairyland + Fairy Stories + +Author: Evelyn Sharp + +Illustrator: Mrs. Percy Dearmer + +Release Date: November 3, 2009 [EBook #30400] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALL THE WAY TO FAIRYLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-cover"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-cover.jpg" ALT="Cover art" BORDER="0" WIDTH="547" HEIGHT="712"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +All the Way to Fairyland +</H1> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +Fairy Stories +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +EVELYN SHARP +</H2> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +AUTHOR OF "WYMPS" +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WITH EIGHT COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS +<BR> +AND A COVER BY MRS. PERCY DEARMER +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JOHN LANE +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE BODLEY HEAD +<BR> +LONDON AND NEW YORK +<BR> +1898 +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY +<BR> +JOHN LANE. +<BR><BR> +FIRST EDITION +<BR><BR> +University Press: +<BR> +JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4> +<I>By the Same author:</I> +</H4> + +<H4> +WYMPS: FAIRY TALES. With eight coloured illustrations by Mrs. Percy +Dearmer. +<BR> +THE MAKING OF A SCHOOLGIRL. +<BR> +AT THE RELTON ARMS. +<BR> +THE MAKING OF A PRIG. +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="A PRINCESS FLOATING ABOUT ON A SOFT WHITE CLOUD" BORDER="0" WIDTH="505" HEIGHT="638"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THESE STORIES +<BR> +ARE FOR +<BR> +GEOFFREY AND CHRISTOPHER +<BR> +TRISTAN AND ISEULT +<BR> +MARGARET AND BOY +<BR> +AND +<BR> +EVERARD +<BR> +AND ALL THE OTHER CHILDREN +<BR> +WHO WOULD LIKE TO GO +<BR> +ALL THE WAY TO FAIRYLAND +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Contents +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="15%">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="85%"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">THE COUNTRY CALLED NONAMIA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">WHY THE WYMPS CRIED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">THE STORY OF HONEY AND SUNNY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">THE LITTLE PRINCESS AND THE POET</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">THE WONDERFUL TOYMAKER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">THE PROFESSOR OF PRACTICAL JOKES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">THE DOLL THAT CAME STRAIGHT FROM FAIRYLAND</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">THOSE WYMPS AGAIN!</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +List of Illustrations +</H2> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +BY MRS. PERCY DEARMER +</H4> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="100%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="90%"> +<A HREF="#img-front">A PRINCESS FLOATING ABOUT ON A SOFT WHITE CLOUD</A> . . <I>Frontispiece</I> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-021">THE WYMPS SAY THAT QUEER BEGAN IT</A> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-049">SUNNY WAS SO ASTONISHED THAT SHE STOPPED CRYING AT ONCE</A> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-071">"COME WITH ME, POET," SAID THE LITTLE PRINCESS</A> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-089">THE ROCKING-HORSES RUSHED OVER THE GROUND</A> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-119">HE CURLED HIMSELF UP IN THE SUN AND CLOSED HIS EYES</A> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-145">THE LADY EMMELINA IS ALWAYS KEPT IN HER PROPER PLACE NOW</A> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-179">"WILL YOU COME AND PLAY WITH ME, LITTLE WISDOM?"</A> </TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Country Called Nonamia +</H3> + +<P> +Ever so long ago, in the wonderful country of Nonamia, there lived an +absent-minded magician. It is not usual, of course, for a magician to +be absent-minded; but then, if it were usual it would not have happened +in Nonamia. Nobody knew very much about this particular magician, for +he lived in his castle in the air, and it is not easy to visit any one +who lives in the air. He did not want to be visited, however; visitors +always meant conversation, and he could not endure conversation. This, +by the way, was not surprising, for he was so absent-minded that he +always forgot the end of his sentence before he was half-way through +the beginning of it; and as for his visitors' remarks—well, if he had +had any visitors, he would never have heard their remarks at all. So, +when some one did call on him, one day,—and that was when he had been +living in his castle in the air for seven hundred and seventy-seven +years and had almost forgotten who he was and why he was there,—the +magician was so astonished that he could not think of anything to say. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you get here?" he asked at last; for even an absent-minded +magician cannot remain altogether silent, when he looks out of his +castle in the air and sees a Princess in a gold and silver frock, with +a bright little crown on her head, floating about on a soft white cloud. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I just came, that's all," answered the Princess, with a +particularly friendly smile. "You see, I have never been able to find +my own castle in the air, so when the West Wind told me about yours I +asked him to blow me here. May I come in and see what it is like?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not," said the magician, hastily. "It is not like anything; +and even if it were, I should not let you come in. Don't you know +that, if you were to enter another person's castle in the air, it would +vanish away like a puff of smoke?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, dear!" sighed the Princess. "I did so want to know what a real +castle in the air was like. I wonder if yours is at all like mine!" +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me about yours," said the magician. "I may be able to help you +to find it." Of course, he only said this in order to prevent her from +coming inside his own castle. At the same time, a little conversation +with a friendly Princess in a gold and silver gown is not at all +unpleasant, when one has lived in a castle in the air for seven hundred +and seventy-seven years. +</P> + +<P> +"My castle in the air is much bigger than yours," she explained. "It +has ever so many rooms in it,—a large room to laugh in and a small +room to cry in—" +</P> + +<P> +"To cry in?" interrupted the magician. "Why, no one ever thinks of +crying in a castle in the air!" +</P> + +<P> +"One never knows," answered the Princess, gravely. "Supposing I were +to prick my finger, what should I do if there was n't a room to cry in? +Then, there is a middling-sized room to be serious in; for there is +just a chance that I might want to be serious sometimes, and it would +be as well to have a room, in case." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps it would," observed the magician, who had never listened so +attentively to a conversation in the whole of his long life. "What +else will you have in your castle?" +</P> + +<P> +"I shall have lots of nice books that end happily," answered the +Princess; "and they shall be talking books, so that I need not read +them to find out what they are about. I shall have plenty of happy +thoughts in my castle, too, and lots of nice dreams piled up in heaps, +and—well, there is just one thing more." +</P> + +<P> +"What is that?" asked the magician. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I think I should like to have a Prince in my castle, a nice +Prince, who would not want to be just dull and princely like all the +princes I have ever danced with, but a Prince who would like my castle +exactly as I have built it and would play with me all day long. That +would be something like a Prince, wouldn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"You could not possibly have a Prince," said the magician. "If you +allowed some one else even to look into your castle in the air, it +would vanish away like a puff of smoke. I have lived in my castle for +seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and I have never allowed any one +to put a foot in it." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it so beautiful, then, your castle in the air?" asked the Princess, +wonderingly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure I don't know," said the absent-minded magician; "I don't +think I ever noticed. I came to live in it, because it was the only +place in which I could be left alone. That reminds me, that if you do +not go away at once I shall be obliged to become exceedingly angry with +you." +</P> + +<P> +"By all means," said the Princess, who had the most charming manners in +the world; "but I should like to have my castle first." +</P> + +<P> +"I have n't got it here," said the magician, looking about him vaguely. +"I know I saw it somewhere not long ago, but I can't remember what I +did with it. However, if you ask the people of Nonamia, they will be +able to tell you where it has gone. You will find that they are very +obliging." +</P> + +<P> +"Will they not be surprised?" asked the Princess. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear me, no! The Nonamiacs are never surprised at anything," said the +magician; and he drew in his head from the window. The Princess in the +gold and silver frock sailed away on her cloud, and landed presently in +the flat, green country of Nonamia. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you seen my castle in the air?" she asked, very politely, of the +first Nonamiac she met. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it like?" asked the Nonamiac, without showing the least +surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"It is ever so large and ever so beautiful, and it is packed full of +happiness, and there is a nice Prince inside," answered the Princess. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said the Nonamiac; "then it must be the one I saw being blown +along by the South Wind. But there was no Prince inside." +</P> + +<P> +The Princess thanked him and hastened away in the direction of the +South Wind until she met another Nonamiac, to whom she explained as +politely as before what she wanted to know. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said the Nonamiac, "that must be the castle I met just now as it +was being carried off by the North Wind. But I saw no Prince inside." +</P> + +<P> +The Princess turned round and hurried after the North Wind as fast as +she could go. As soon as she met another Nonamiac, however, she had to +turn round once more, for he told her that her castle had just been +stolen by the East Wind; and when she had been walking quite a long +time in the direction of the East Wind, she met yet another Nonamiac, +who told her that it was the West Wind who had taken away her castle in +the air. +</P> + +<P> +"It is too bad!" said the little Princess, sitting down exhausted on a +large stone by the side of the road. "Why should all the winds be +playing with my castle in the air?" +</P> + +<P> +"Castles in the air generally go to the winds," observed a traveller in +a dusty brown cloak, who was sitting on another large stone, not very +far off. She was quite sure he had not been there the moment before, +but, in Nonamia, there was nothing remarkable about that. The Princess +wiped the tears out of her eyes with a small lace handkerchief, and +looked at the stranger. +</P> + +<P> +"Mine is a very particular castle in the air, you see," she said. "It +is ever so large and ever so beautiful, and it is packed with happiness +and dreams, and <I>perhaps</I> there is a Prince in it, too." +</P> + +<P> +"A Prince?" said the stranger. "What sort of Prince?" +</P> + +<P> +"A nice Prince," explained the Princess, "who can play games and tell +stories and be amusing. All the Princes I know can do nothing but +dance, and they are not at all amusing. I am afraid, though," she +added, sighing, "that I am going to have my castle without a Prince, +after all." +</P> + +<P> +"Would it do," asked the traveller in the dusty brown cloak, "if you +were to have a Prince without a castle?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no!" answered the Princess, decidedly. "If you knew how beautiful +my castle in the air is, you would not even ask such a stupid question!" +</P> + +<P> +Then she again took up her small lace handkerchief, and she brushed the +dust from her gold and silver gown, and polished up her bright little +gold crown, and made herself as neat and dainty as a Princess should +be; for, in Nonamia, one never knows what may happen next, and it is +just as well to be prepared. And, in fact, no sooner was she quite +tidy than the West Wind came hurrying along with her castle in the air; +and the Princess gave a shout of joy and sprang inside it; and the West +Wind blew, and blew, and blew, until the castle that was packed full of +happiness, and the little Princess in the gold and silver gown, were +both completely out of sight. The traveller looked after them and felt +a little forlorn; then he picked up his stick and walked on until he +came to the magician's castle. This may seem a little surprising, as +he had no wings of any kind and the magician's castle was in the air; +but it must be remembered that it all happened in Nonamia. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear, dear! Here 's another of them!" grumbled the magician, when he +looked out of his window and saw the stranger standing below. After +being alone for seven hundred and seventy-seven years, it was a little +exhausting to have two visitors on the same day. Besides, a traveller +in a dusty brown cloak is not at all the same thing as a dainty +Princess in a gold and silver gown. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-day," said the stranger. "Are you the magician who has given a +castle in the air to a Princess in a gold and silver frock with a +bright little crown on her head?" +</P> + +<P> +"Very likely; but I cannot say for certain," said the absent-minded +magician. "I believe there was something of the kind, now you come to +mention it; but I could n't tell you what it was. However, I don't +mean to give away any more castles in the air, so the sooner you leave +me alone, the better." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want a castle in the air," laughed the stranger. "People who +spend their lives in building real houses never have time to build +castles in the air! <I>I</I> want to find the Princess, not the castle." +</P> + +<P> +"That you will never do as long as she is happy in it," said the +magician. "People who live in castles in the air are never to be +found, unless they have grown tired of living in them." +</P> + +<P> +"Oho!" chuckled the stranger. "Are <I>you</I> tired of living in yours, +then?" +</P> + +<P> +The absent-minded magician tried to determine whether he should be +angry or not, when the stranger said this; but, by the time he had made +up his mind to be angry, he had forgotten what there was to be angry +about, and while he was thinking about it, the man in the dusty brown +cloak walked away and left him. +</P> + +<P> +Evidently, it was not very long before the Princess grew tired of +living in her castle in the air, for the very next day, as the +traveller was once more resting on the large stone by the side of the +road, down she came, castle and all, and stopped just in front of him. +Truly, there is no end to the wonderful things that happen in Nonamia! +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo!" said the traveller, smiling. "What is it like inside your +castle?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is not half so nice as I expected to find it," said the Princess, +popping her head out of the top window. "You see, there is no one to +play with; and even if your castle is the most beautiful castle in the +world, it is always dull when there is no one to play with, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," answered the stranger; "I have never had any one to +play with. What else is wrong with your castle?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," continued the Princess, "it is all very well to have a castle +that is packed with happiness; but, when it is packed so tight that you +cannot get it out without some one to help you, it is not much good, is +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," answered the stranger; "my happiness has never been +packed so tight as all that. Have you anything else to complain of?" +</P> + +<P> +"A great many things," said the Princess. "It is all that stupid +magician's fault. When I said, 'a small room to cry in,' I did n't +really mean a room to <I>cry</I> in, did I? But every way I turn, there is +always the room to cry in, staring me in the face! I am sure there is +something seriously wrong with my castle in the air." +</P> + +<P> +"No doubt about it," said the traveller; "and it is clearly the +magician's fault." +</P> + +<P> +"When you came to live in your castle in the air," continued the +Princess, plaintively, "did you find that it was very different from +the one you had built?" +</P> + +<P> +The traveller in the dusty brown cloak burst out laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"I have no time to build castles in the air," he said. "I build real +houses for other people to live in, people who would, perhaps, have no +houses at all if I did not build them. That is more important than +building castles in the air for one's self." +</P> + +<P> +"What are your real houses like?" asked the Princess. +</P> + +<P> +"They are strong," answered the stranger, proudly. "All the four winds +joined together could not blow them down. No one has ever built such +strong houses as mine." +</P> + +<P> +"Are they beautiful, too?" asked the Princess. +</P> + +<P> +"I have no time to look after that," answered the stranger. "I build +more houses than any one else in the world; and still, there are people +who are waiting for houses to live in. I must build as fast as I can, +day after day, year after year." +</P> + +<P> +"Then why are you not building houses now?" asked the Princess. The +great builder looked sorrowful. +</P> + +<P> +"There is something wrong about my real houses, too," he confessed. +"The people who live in them are never quite contented; and I have come +away to think out a new plan by myself, so that the next houses I build +shall be the most wonderful houses in the world." +</P> + +<P> +The Princess leaned her chin on her hand, and looked quite thoughtful +for a moment or two. +</P> + +<P> +"May I come and help you to build real houses, for a change?" she said +presently. "I am dreadfully tired of building castles in the air that +do not turn out properly—though, of course, that was principally the +magician's fault! Still, if you were to show me the way, I might be +able to build something real that would turn out properly; and that +would be ever so much more amusing." +</P> + +<P> +"It is not at all amusing," said the traveller, shaking his head. "You +would soon grow tired of it; besides, you would have no Prince to play +with." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think I want a Prince to play with," said the charming +Princess in the gold and silver frock. "He might turn out to be as +dull as my castle in the air, especially if the magician had anything +to do with it! I would much sooner come and help you to build real +houses." +</P> + +<P> +The traveller in the dusty brown cloak still shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Little ladies in gold and silver gowns can only build castles in the +air," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Do the people who live in your houses never build castles in the air?" +asked the Princess. +</P> + +<P> +"I never thought of asking them," answered the great builder. "I have +been too much occupied in building their real houses." +</P> + +<P> +"Then let us go and ask them now," said the Princess; and she came down +from her castle in the air, and stepped once more on to the dusty road, +and held out her little white hand to the traveller. Her castle in the +air vanished like a puff of smoke the moment she stepped out of it. +</P> + +<P> +"What would be the use of that?" asked the traveller, smiling. He took +the little white hand, however, for no one could have refused that much +to such a very charming Princess. +</P> + +<P> +"Why," said the Princess in the gold and silver frock, "then we could +make their real houses just like their castles in the air; and only +think how packed with happiness they would be!" +</P> + +<P> +The traveller looked at her in amazement. It was certainly astonishing +that so great a builder as he should find out what was wrong with his +houses, from a Princess with a bright little crown on her head who had +never done anything but build castles in the air. Still, we must +remember that it all happened in Nonamia; and that accounts for a great +deal. +</P> + +<P> +"You are quite right," said the traveller; "you know far more about it +than I do. You shall come and help me to build real houses, and they +shall be the most wonderful houses that have ever been built." +</P> + +<P> +"All beautiful to look at, and packed with happiness inside!" cried the +dainty little Princess, clapping her hands for joy. "And we won't let +that stupid magician spoil our real houses, will we?" +</P> + +<P> +The magician was looking out of his window at nothing at all, when they +came past his castle, hand in hand. +</P> + +<P> +"We are going to build the most wonderful houses in the world," cried +the Princess,—"ever so much more wonderful than the stupid castle in +the air you gave <I>me</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +This was not very gracious of her, for, after all, the magician had +given her exactly what she had built for herself. However, as he had +already forgotten both of them and could not think of anything to say, +and as they were in too great a hurry to stay and help him, there is +nothing more to be said about the magician, except that he is still +living in his castle in the air and looking out of his window at +nothing at all, which is a right and proper occupation for a magician +who is absent-minded. As for the traveller and the charming Princess, +they spent the rest of their days in building the most wonderful houses +in the world for the people who had nowhere to live. And as for the +people who had nowhere to live, it was only natural that they should +all find their way to the country called Nonamia, where a little lady +in a gold and silver gown taught them to build a castle in the air, and +a great builder in a dusty brown cloak made it into a real house that +was packed with happiness. +</P> + +<P> +It is a little difficult to believe that this is all true; but then, it +must be remembered that it all happened in Nonamia, ever so long ago! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<A NAME="img-021"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-021.jpg" ALT="THE WYMPS SAY THAT QUEER BEGAN IT" BORDER="0" WIDTH="512" HEIGHT="651"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Why the Wymps Cried +</H3> + +<P> +The wymps and the fairies have never been able to agree. Nobody quite +knows why, though the Fairy Queen, who is the wisest person in the +whole world, was once heard to say that jealousy had something to do +with it. The fairies say, however, that they would never dream of +being jealous of people who live at the back of the sun and do not know +manners; while the wymps say it would be absurd to be jealous of any +one who lives at the front of the sun and cannot take a joke. All the +same, the Fairy Queen is always right, so somebody must certainly be +jealous of somebody; and it is well known that if the wymps and the +fairies are invited to the same party, it is sure to end in a quarrel. +It is really a wonder that the Fairy Queen has not lost patience with +the wymps long ago; but people say that she has more affection for her +naughty little subjects at the back of the sun than any one would +imagine; and the Fairy Queen is so wonderful that it is quite possible +to believe this. +</P> + +<P> +Once, matters became so serious that there would have been a real war, +if the Queen had not called an assembly of her subjects on the +spot—which happened to be on the roof of a blacksmith's forge—and +asked them what the fuss was all about. +</P> + +<P> +"Please, your Majesty," said one fairy, half crying, "the wymps shut me +up at the back of the sun for fifteen days, and they gave me nothing to +eat, your Majesty; they said that if I couldn't take a joke I couldn't +take anything. And I should never <I>wish</I> to take one of their jokes, +please your Majesty." +</P> + +<P> +"Do not trouble about that," said the Fairy Queen, gravely. "For my +part, I shall never expect you to take a joke from any one. Now, +Capricious, what have they done to you?" she added, as another fairy +with a round dimpled face came forward in a great hurry. +</P> + +<P> +"Please, your Majesty," began Capricious, trying to make a very +cheerful voice sound extremely doleful, "I found a wymp in the nursery, +after the children had gone to bed; and he was quite upset because the +Wymp King had made a joke and no one could see it; and he asked me to +go behind the sun with him, so that I might help him to see the joke +that the King had made. But when I got there, your Majesty, I said it +was much too dark to see anything and I was not at all surprised that +no one could see the King's jokes; and the King was so angry that he +ordered me to be poked through the sun again; and here I am, please +your Majesty." +</P> + +<P> +Her Majesty smiled approvingly. +</P> + +<P> +"You have made a joke worth two of the Wymp King's," she said; "and I +shall appoint you as a reward to go to Wympland with a message from me. +Do not trouble to thank me," she added, as the round dimpled face of +Capricious grew a little crestfallen, "for there is no time. The sun +is just going to rise, and the moment it is above the horizon you must +go straight through it once more and tell the King that I invite him to +breakfast in Fairyland. And now I must be off, for I have a smile to +paint on the face of every child in the world before it wakes." +</P> + +<P> +So the Fairy Queen flew away to paint a million or two of the most +beautiful smiles in the world; and the other fairies popped down +through the roof and did all the blacksmith's work for him and dropped +a nice dream on his pillow just to show they had been there; and +Capricious sat on the edge of the chimney-pot, until the sun came above +the horizon and it was time for her to take the Queen's message to +Wympland. +</P> + +<P> +The Wymp King knew better than to refuse the Queen's invitation to +breakfast; so he yawned three hundred and fifty-four times, rubbed his +eyes to keep them open—for it is a well-known thing that the Wymp King +is nearly always asleep—and started off in the direction of Fairyland. +The Queen was as pleased to see him as if he had never been naughty at +all; but, of course, she was far too much of a Queen to let him guess +that he was really there to be scolded. So she made him sit next to +her at breakfast, and gave him a cup of stinging-nettle tea to keep him +awake, and allowed him to make as many jokes as he pleased. The Wymp +King, in consequence, was extremely happy; and when the meal was over +and the Queen began to look stern, he had to think very hard indeed +before he remembered that he was nothing but a naughty little wymp +after all. +</P> + +<P> +"This state of things cannot go on," said the Fairy Queen. "What is +the use of my being a Queen if I am not to be obeyed?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your Majesty's chief use is to look like a Queen and to forgive your +disobedient subjects," said the Wymp King, who had taken so much +stinging-nettle tea that he was almost bristling with jokes. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," sighed the Fairy Queen, looking sideways at the Wymp King, "it is +not at all easy to rule a country like mine." +</P> + +<P> +"It is very fortunate for the country to be ruled by a Queen like you," +said the Wymp King, who had not been so wide awake for a thousand years. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think so? Then Wympland shall have a Queen for a change, and +you shall stay here instead and take a holiday," said her Majesty, +promptly. The Wymp King saw that he was outwitted, but he would not +have been a wymp if he had lost his temper about it; so he chuckled +good-humouredly, and pretended not to see that he had really been +cheated of his kingdom and was nothing but a prisoner in Fairyland. +However, the Fairy Queen gave him very little time even to keep his +temper, for she turned him into a tortoise and sent him to sleep under +a flower-pot in the garden; and then she called for Capricious to come +and help her to choose a Queen for Wympland. Capricious put her round, +dimpled face on one side, and thought deeply for thirteen seconds and a +half. +</P> + +<P> +"There is Molly, the shoemaker's daughter," said Capricious, when she +had finished thinking. "She is seven years old, and she is almost as +fond of sleeping as his Wympish Majesty. She would make an excellent +Queen for Wympland." +</P> + +<P> +"I remember Molly," said the Fairy Queen, thoughtfully. "She has ruled +the shoemaker and the shoemaker's wife and the shoemaker's customers +for seven years and a half; doubtless, she will have no difficulty in +ruling Wympland. So let no time be lost, Capricious, and see that +Molly wakes up from her morning sleep and finds herself on the Wymp +King's throne. She will look after the wymps for a time, and I shall +have some peace. Besides," added the Fairy Queen with her wise smile, +"if the wymps can only be made to cry for once in their lives, we shall +probably have no more difficulty with them." +</P> + +<P> +Capricious, who was just an ordinary little fairy and never thought +about anything much except singing and dancing, was quite unable to +understand the Queen's last remark. +</P> + +<P> +"Shall I tell Molly what she is to do when she gets there, please your +Majesty?" she asked in rather a puzzled tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Do?" said the Queen. "The rulers of Wympland never have to do +anything. If Molly will only keep her subjects amused, that is all +they will expect from her." +</P> + +<P> +That was how it was settled, and that was how Molly woke up from her +morning sleep and found herself on the Wymp King's throne, with four +little wymps standing in a row just in front of her. Molly stared at +the throne on which she was sitting, stared around at the dimly lighted +Land of the Wymps, and stared at the four little wymps who stood and +laughed at her. +</P> + +<P> +"Who are you?" she asked, opening her eyes as wide as she could. "Are +you live dolls, or fairies, or just other children for me to play with?" +</P> + +<P> +The four wymps laughed more than ever when she said this, and began to +sing a funny little song all together, just to explain who they were. +This was the song:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"We are Skilful and Wilful and Captious and Queer,<BR> +There 's nothing to fright you and nothing to fear!<BR> +Four little wymps at the back of the sun,<BR> +Brimful of wympery, rubbish, and fun!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"You 'll find we are wympish; but then, we 're not bores,<BR> +Though we own to a weakness for wiping off scores.<BR> +Ah! Skilful and Wilful and Captious and Queer<BR> +Are never far off when mischief is near!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Of Kings we 've had many, but never a Queen;<BR> +So bewymping a monarch we 've surely not seen;<BR> +And—Skilful and Wilful and Captious and Queer<BR> +Though we are, yet we know how to welcome you here!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"You 'll surely bewymp all the wymps you come near<BR> +Besides Skilful and Wilful and Captious and Queer;<BR> +By the time you have gone and your wymping is done,<BR> +The world will have changed at the back of the sun."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Are you really wymps?" exclaimed Molly, when the four little fellows +had finished explaining who they were; for, like every properly +educated child, Molly knew quite well that the wymps lived at the back +of the sun, although she had never been there before. +</P> + +<P> +"To be sure we are," answered Skilful and Wilful and Captious and +Queer. "And you are our new Queen." +</P> + +<P> +"Am I?" said Molly. "Oh, what fun!" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course it's fun," said Skilful. "Everything is fun up here." +</P> + +<P> +"Except the King's jokes," said Wilful. +</P> + +<P> +"And the Fairy Queen's commands," said Captious. +</P> + +<P> +"And the interference of the fairies," said Queer. +</P> + +<P> +"How do the fairies interfere?" asked Molly. +</P> + +<P> +"They come without being invited," said Skilful. +</P> + +<P> +"They don't play fair," said Wilful. +</P> + +<P> +"They always expect to win," said Captious. +</P> + +<P> +"They cry for nothing at all," said Queer. +</P> + +<P> +"I cry sometimes," observed Molly. +</P> + +<P> +"When?" asked all four, in a tone of alarm. +</P> + +<P> +"When I 'm hungry," said Molly, "or tired; or sometimes, when I tumble +down; or when I feel cross." +</P> + +<P> +"You should never cry," said Skilful, in a superior tone. "It takes up +so much time, and when you 've done crying you 've got exactly the same +thing to cry about as before. If you are hungry, don't cry but get +something to eat." +</P> + +<P> +"And if you 're tired, don't cry but go to sleep. Nothing could be +simpler," said Wilful. +</P> + +<P> +"And if you tumble down, don't cry but pick yourself up again," said +Captious. "If you know how to tumble down properly, it is the best fun +in the world. We spend most of our time up here in learning new ways +of tumbling down." +</P> + +<P> +"And if you are cross," added Queer; and then he stopped and looked +doubtfully at the other three. "What is she to do if she feels cross?" +he asked them. They shook their heads in reply. +</P> + +<P> +"Nobody is ever cross in Wympland," they explained to Molly. "People +who know how to make jokes, really <I>good</I> jokes, soon learn how to take +them as well, and then there is nothing left to be cross about. You +don't feel cross now, do you?" +</P> + +<P> +Molly assured them that she did not feel in the least cross, and their +faces brightened again. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps, if you will tell us when you begin to feel cross we shall be +able to do something for you," they said; "but, whatever you do, you +must not cry in Wympland. It is only the fairies who do that, and they +don't know any better. As long as the sun has had a country at the +back of it, no wymp has ever been known to cry. Now, let us go and +find somebody to tease!" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought Queens could always do as they like," objected Molly, as +they took her two hands and made her jump down from the throne without +finding out whether she wished to come or not. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no," said Skilful and Wilful and Captious and Queer. "You make a +great mistake. The King always does as he is told in Wympland. So +come along with us and see us tease somebody." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want to tease anybody," said Molly, decidedly. "I am going to +be a real Queen. Real Queens do just as they like; it is only Kings +who do as they are told. If you are not going to let me have my own +way I might just as well have stopped at home, instead of coming all +this way on purpose to be your Queen!" +</P> + +<P> +The four little wymps looked very perplexed. "May she do as she +likes?" they asked one another, and shook their four little heads +doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"She might order us about," said Skilful. +</P> + +<P> +"Or laugh at us," said Wilful. +</P> + +<P> +"Or expect us to obey her," said Captious. +</P> + +<P> +But Queer turned three somersaults in the air, just to show that he did +not care a bit if they did not agree with him; and then he bowed to +Molly almost as gracefully as a fairy might have done at the front of +the sun. +</P> + +<P> +"She is a real Queen," he said; "and real Queens must be obeyed." +</P> + +<P> +And when Molly declared that she should probably cry if they did not +immediately allow her to have her own way, the other three wymps were +obliged to follow Queer's example. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a real Queen, and you may do as you like," they said in a +resigned tone; and Molly clapped her hands with delight. +</P> + +<P> +"Then please fetch me some plum-cake, and a large ice, and lots of +barley sugar; I am so hungry," she said. Immediately, everything she +asked for was lying before her on the King's throne, and they all sat +down and enjoyed such a dinner as only a wymp or a real Queen would +know how to appreciate. When they had finished, Molly said she should +like to see the rest of Wympland, for nobody at the front of the sun +had ever been able to tell her anything about it; so they led her all +over it, which did not take them longer than the rest of the afternoon, +for the world at the back of the sun is smaller than some people think, +and that is a very good thing, for after all it is better to live on +the right side of the sun if one is not a wymp. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a very flat country," said the little Queen, as she trotted +along with two wymps on each side of her. +</P> + +<P> +"It has to be flat," explained Skilful. "If it were tilted ever so +little we should roll into the sun and out at the other side, don't you +see; and no true wymp ever wants to do that." +</P> + +<P> +"It is rather dark, too," continued the little Queen. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," said Wilful, proudly. "It is always the same here. Now, +when you get to the front of the sun you never know whether it is going +to be light or dark. There are no surprises of that sort at the back +of the sun." +</P> + +<P> +"And where," asked Molly, "is the royal palace?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wherever you like," answered Captious in an obliging tone. "Would you +like it here, or will you have it a little nearer the sun? Of course +it is warmer, near the sun, but you will find it much noisier because +the stars are so fond of chattering." +</P> + +<P> +"I should like it here, please," said Molly, who did not want to wait +another minute for her palace. Hardly were her words spoken than a +perfectly charming little palace appeared in front of her, just large +enough for such a very small Queen to feel happy in. It was all made +of rainbows and starshine and dewdrops; every thing that is bright and +sweet-looking had helped to make her palace, and from the very middle +of it rose a tall, silvery bell-tower, from which peals of laughter +were ringing merrily. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, oh! how beautiful!" exclaimed Molly. "But how is it that my +palace is so bright while Wympland is so dull?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said Queer, softly; "we wished for the palace, you see, and the +things we wish for are never dull." +</P> + +<P> +"It is a dream-palace," added Wilful; "and dreams are never dull +either." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope it will not go away as my dreams do when I wake up in the +morning," said Molly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no," they assured her. "It cannot disappear until we wish it to +go away again; and that we shall never do as long as it induces you to +stay with us." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you always wish for what you want?" asked Molly. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear me, yes," said Captious. "What is the use of having a lot of +things lying about that you don't want? There is only just enough room +in Wympland for the things we do want, so we wish for them as we want +them, and that is much more convenient. You should try it." +</P> + +<P> +"Everything you see here," added Skilful, "has been wished for, some +time or another. Neither Wympland, nor the wymps, nor our bewymping +little Queen would be here at all if somebody had not wished for them." +</P> + +<P> +"And if we were all to wish hard at the same moment," said Wilful, "not +one of us would be left standing here, nor would there be any country +at all at the back of the sun." +</P> + +<P> +"But we shall never wish that, now that we have a real Queen of our +own," said Queer. +</P> + +<P> +Then, for the first time, Molly noticed that this strange little +country at the back of the sun had no people in it; for, ever since she +had waked up on the King's throne, she had seen no one except Skilful +and Wilful and Captious and Queer. +</P> + +<P> +"Where are all the other wymps?" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," they said, mysteriously; "most people don't know it, but the +wymps go through the sun every morning and spend the day in making fun +for the people on the other side. That is how the people down in the +world are taught to laugh instead of to cry. There would be no +laughter at all at the front of the sun if it were not for the wymps." +</P> + +<P> +"How strange!" said Molly. "I always thought it was wrong to make fun +of people." +</P> + +<P> +"So it is," said Queer; "nobody but a bad wymp would do such a thing. +A true wymp makes fun <I>for</I> people, and that is a very different thing." +</P> + +<P> +"A <I>very</I> different thing," echoed the other three. "We only make fun +of people who have never learnt how to laugh, and very difficult it is +to make them into fun at all. It's very poor fun when it is made, +too,—most of it," they added, sighing. +</P> + +<P> +Molly was just going to ask them how they managed to make people into +fun at all, when a number of sounds like pistol-shots suddenly came +from the direction of the sun, and the four wymps grew wildly excited +and seized her by the hands and began to race over the ground with her +as fast as they could. +</P> + +<P> +"The wymps have come home!" they gasped breathlessly. "If we make all +the haste we can, we shall be there in time to see them arrive." +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to Molly that to run after her subjects was a curious thing +for a real Queen to do. However, she was far too much out of breath to +say anything, and the next moment they had reached the back of the sun; +and there were dozens of little wymps, all tumbling through it, one on +the top of the other, until they made a large heap of themselves at the +feet of their new little Queen. +</P> + +<P> +"They are bidding you welcome," whispered Queer, as the heap remained +motionless at Molly's feet; and, except for the fact that a good many +shouts of laughter were coming from it, no one would have thought it +was made of wymps at all. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, please get up," implored their little Queen. "It is very nice of +you to be so glad to see me, but I am sure it must be very +uncomfortable to lie about on the floor like that." +</P> + +<P> +Immediately, the heap dissolved itself into wymps again; and they +crowded round Molly, tumbling up against her so clumsily and chattering +and laughing so noisily, that she thought it was quite time to remind +them that she was a real Queen. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think you could make a little less noise?" she begged them. "I +don't like noise at all. If you will only try to speak one at a time, +I may be able to answer everybody." +</P> + +<P> +The wymps were so amazed to hear that she did not like noise that they +became silent for a whole minute in order to think about it. "You +see," said Queer, apologetically, "we have never had a Queen before, so +we are not quite sure what she does like. Kings always like plenty of +noise; at least, it does not seem to wake them up, and that is the +great thing." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that is it!" cried all the little wymps together. "We have never +had a Queen before, so we don't quite know how to treat her." +</P> + +<P> +"Supposing," continued Queer, "that you were to tell us the kind of +things that a real Queen would like us to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes!" shouted all the other wymps, gleefully. "Tell us what a +real Queen would like us to do!" +</P> + +<P> +So Molly clambered up on the King's throne, and tried to look as much +like a Queen as a very little girl, in a very short frock and a very +pink pinafore, knows how to look; and the wymps stood in front of her, +closely packed together; and she began to tell them some of the things +that a real Queen would like them to do. +</P> + +<P> +"First of all," said Molly, "a real Queen does n't like her toes +trodden on, and her pinafore crumpled, and her hair pulled. She does +n't like being screamed at, either; and she never allows herself to be +ordered about by any one. She likes to order other people about +instead, and she likes the other people to be very pleased when she +orders them about, and not to go slowly and look disagreeable and +grumble. She likes a new frock every Sunday, and a birthday every +month; and she always drinks milk for supper. It is supper time now," +added the little Queen, beginning to yawn. +</P> + +<P> +All the wymps at once hurled themselves helter-skelter through the sun +again, in search of milk for their new Queen's supper. But Queer ran +faster than any of them, and he took the very milk that Molly's own +mother had just milked into the pail for herself; and the strangest +thing of all was that, although the pail became empty before her eyes +and she had to go without any supper, Molly's mother was quite happy +after that and did not worry any more about her little girl who had so +strangely disappeared in the morning. That shows what the wymps can do +when they forget to be wympish. And Molly drank her milk and went to +sleep in her dream-palace, and was the happiest little Queen on either +side of the sun; and the wymps—well, it is impossible to describe what +the wymps felt like. +</P> + +<P> +Molly was Queen of Wympland for a great many days, and there had never +reigned such peace at the back of the sun, nor in the whole world of +Fairyland either. It was so remarkable that the Fairy Queen sent for +Capricious, one day, and asked her why nobody had anything to grumble +about. Any one might have thought from the Fairy Queen's tone that she +was not particularly pleased at so much contentment, but of course that +could not possibly be the case. +</P> + +<P> +"Please, your Majesty," said Capricious, who had been waiting anxiously +to be asked this very question for quite a long time, "it is because +the wymps are so much occupied in looking after their new Queen that +they have no time to play tricks on us." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said her Majesty, smiling wisely, "does she seem happy at the +back of the sun?" +</P> + +<P> +"Everybody is happy at the back of the sun, please your Majesty," said +Capricious. "They play games all day long to amuse their new Queen, +and they never quarrel except for the right to do things for her little +Majesty. If she stays there much longer it will soon be impossible to +distinguish a wymp from a fairy!" +</P> + +<P> +"It is time she went home again," said the Fairy Queen, smiling wisely +for the second time. "How do the shoemaker and his wife get on without +her?" +</P> + +<P> +"Their house is so quiet that the shoemaker has never made better +shoes," answered Capricious. "The shoemaker's wife, though, can do +nothing but sit out in the sunshine and wait, for she cannot bear the +silence indoors. Even wympcraft cannot make her forget everything, +your Majesty." +</P> + +<P> +"Molly must certainly go home again," said the Fairy Queen; "and she +must go to-morrow morning." +</P> + +<P> +Capricious sighed dismally. +</P> + +<P> +"Must she really go, your Majesty?" she ventured to say; "and will the +wymps be free again to plague us with their tiresome wympish jokes?" +</P> + +<P> +The Fairy Queen smiled wisely for the third time. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait until to-morrow morning," she said. "You may have as good a joke +against the wymps as they have ever had against you." +</P> + +<P> +That night, Molly had a dream straight from Fairyland which reminded +her that, although she had a whole palace of her own and quantities of +little subjects to do her bidding, she was really the daughter of the +shoemaker on the other side of the sun. So, when Skilful and Wilful +and Captious and Queer came to play with her in the morning, she told +them she could not be their Queen any longer, as it was time for her to +go back to the front of the sun. The four little fellows looked more +dismal than a wymp had ever been known to look before, and so did all +the wymps in Wympland as soon as they heard that their bewymping Queen +was going away from them. +</P> + +<P> +"Can we do nothing to make you stop with us?" they asked her. "Have we +been too rough with you, after all? You must forgive us if we have, +for we are not accustomed to Queens, at the back of the sun. If we try +to be less noisy, will you not stay with us a little longer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dear little wymps," cried Molly; "you never tread on my toes now, nor +crumple my pinafore, nor pull my hair. I do not want to go away from +you, but it is time for me to go back to the other side of the sun. +Will you please show me how to get there, dear little wymps?" +</P> + +<P> +When they saw that she was quite determined to go, they led her very +sadly to the back of the sun; and nobody made a single joke on the way, +and there was not a smile to be seen in the whole of that sad little +procession. There had never been so little laughter and so much +dolefulness in the Land of the Wymps. +</P> + +<P> +"How am I to get through that?" asked Molly, rubbing the tears out of +her eyes and looking up at the back of the big round sun; "and shall I +tumble all the way down when I get to the other side?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is quite easy," explained Skilful. "You have only to shut your +eyes and jump through it, and the sunbeams will catch you on the other +side; and you can slide down the one that shines into the shoemaker's +garden, where your mother sits watching for you." +</P> + +<P> +Then Molly rubbed her eyes again, for there were still a great many +tears in them, and the more she rubbed them away the faster they came +again, until she was really afraid the wymps would see that she was +crying; and that would never do, for she felt quite sure that a real +Queen should never cry. So she kissed her hand to her sad little +subjects and promised to come back again some day; and then she shut +her eyes tight and jumped through the big round sun and slid down the +sunbeam that shone into the shoemaker's garden. And as she sped down +the shining, slippery sunbeam, she could hear Skilful and Wilful and +Captious and Queer in the distance, singing their funny little song +about her:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"You have surely bewymped all the wymps you came near,<BR> +Besides Skilful and Wilful and Captious and Queer!<BR> +And now that you 've gone and your wymping is done,<BR> +The world has grown sad at the back of the sun."<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Molly never knew what happened when they finished singing; but the +fairies knew, because they were hiding all round the edge of the sun at +the time. And it was the most remarkable thing that had ever happened +in Wympland. +</P> + +<P> +The wymps say that Queer began it; and this is extremely likely, for +Queer was always a little different from the other wymps. Anyhow, they +very soon followed his example; and so it was that all the wymps at the +back of the sun sat down on the ground and cried, because their +bewymping little Queen was no longer with them. And all the fairies +who were hiding popped up their heads and peered over the edge of the +sun and stared in amazement at what was going on in Wympland. +</P> + +<P> +So the Fairy Queen was right, as she always is, and the wymps were made +to cry for once in their lives; and the fairies have as good a joke +against the wymps as the wymps ever had against the fairies. Perhaps +that is why the wymps play so few tricks on the fairies, now; but the +Fairy Queen only smiles when people say that, so she probably knows +better. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<A NAME="img-049"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-049.jpg" ALT="SUNNY WAS SO ASTONISHED THAT SHE STOPPED CRYING AT ONCE" BORDER="0" WIDTH="511" HEIGHT="642"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Story of Honey and Sunny +</H3> + +<P> +There was once a wonderful country in which everything was beautiful. +All the trees, and the flowers, and the birds, and the animals were +just as beautiful as could be imagined; and the shops, and the houses, +and the palaces were the same. Of course all the little girls and boys +were beautiful, too; but that is the same everywhere. Now, whether it +was because of the beauty of his kingdom, or whether it was merely on +account of his royal birth, it is impossible to say, but the King was +so extremely nervous that his life was no pleasure to him. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot bear anything noisy," he said. "Noise is so very alarming." +So when the baby Princess cried, he sent her away to another King's +country, to be brought up in a village nobody had ever heard of, so +that her royal father should not be disturbed. And when he heard that +the Queen, his wife, had gone after her, he hardly raised his royal +eyebrows. "She laughed too much," he observed, thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +The palace grew quieter day by day. The ladies in waiting were +forbidden to wear high heels because they made such a clatter on the +marble floors; so everybody knew for the first time how short everybody +else was. Every courtier whose boots creaked was instantly banished, +and if he had a cough into the bargain he was beheaded as well; but the +climate was so delightful that this very rarely happened. In time, +everybody at court took to speaking in a whisper, in order to spare the +King's nerves; and it even became the fashion to talk as little as +possible. The King was immensely pleased at this. "Anybody can talk," +he said; "but it is a sign of great refinement to be silent." After +that, even the ladies in waiting were sometimes silent for quite half +an hour. It is true that the King talked whenever he felt inclined, +but that, of course, was necessary. +</P> + +<P> +The silence of the court soon spread over the country. Laws were made +to forbid the people to keep chickens, or pigs, or cows, or anything +that was noisy; and the children were ordered, by royal proclamation, +never to laugh, and never to cry, and never to quarrel, so that when +the King rode out from his palace not a sound should meet his ears. +But this was not all; for the birds were so frightened by the stillness +of everything that they stopped singing altogether, and the leaves on +the trees ceased to rustle when the wind blew; and even the frogs and +the toads were startled at the hoarseness of their own voices and did +not croak any more, which was the most remarkable thing that ever +happened, for it takes a very great deal to persuade a frog or a toad +that his voice is not charming. The only sound that broke the silence +was the occasional humming of bees, for the King still allowed the +people to keep bees if they liked. "Bees are not noisy," he said. +"They do not grunt, or bark, or croak. I can bear to listen to the +humming of bees." Even the bees did not hum so much as bees generally +do; for the sun soon found that nobody laughed when he was shining his +very best, so he went behind a cloud in a temper and stayed there for +years and years and years; and the bees could not do without sunshine, +even if the King could. So the country grew less beautiful and more +gloomy every year. +</P> + +<P> +But the village without a name in the other King's country, where the +little Princess was being brought up, was a very different kind of +place. It was full of happy people, who made as much noise as they +pleased, and laughed when they were glad, and cried when they were sad, +and never bothered about anything at all. And the chickens ran in and +out of the cottages with the children, and the birds sang all the year +round, and the sun had never been known to stop shining for a single +minute. It was the jolliest country imaginable, for nobody interfered +with anybody else, and the King never made any laws at all, and the +only punishment that existed was for grumbling. It is true that there +was hardly any conversation, for everybody talked at once and nobody +heard what anybody else said; but as it was not often worth hearing, +that did not matter in the least. Everybody was happy and jolly, and +that was the great thing. +</P> + +<P> +Little Sunny the Princess grew up without knowing that she was a +Princess at all; and nobody else knew that she was a Princess either; +and even the Queen had almost forgotten that she was a King's wife. +That was nobody's concern though; and they lived in the tiniest cottage +of all, and Sunny romped with every girl and boy in the place and was +loved by them all. They had called her Sunny because she could look +straight at the sun without blinking, which was more than the boldest +of them could do; and it was such a good name for her that she was +never called anything else. Besides, nobody knew her real name, and as +it is much too long to be mentioned here, and as the Queen had +forgotten it long ago, it really is of no consequence at all. +</P> + +<P> +One fine day, Sunny sat up in the chocolate tree, listening to one of +the stories that Honey the gardener's son was so fond of telling her; +and Honey the gardener's son lay on the grass below, and tried to catch +the chocolate drops with which she was pelting him. +</P> + +<P> +"Why are all your stories so much alike, Honey?" asked Sunny the +Princess. "Why does the Prince always go out into the world to find a +Princess? Why should n't the Princess go and find the Prince, for a +change? I wish I was a Princess; I would start to-morrow. What fun!" +</P> + +<P> +She laughed her very happiest laugh and found an extra large chocolate +drop and threw it into his mouth. Honey laughed as well as any one +could laugh with a chocolate drop in his mouth, and tried to think of +an answer to her question. Honey was not his real name either, but it +was the one they had given him because he knew the language of the +bees, as, indeed, every true son of a gardener should. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps the stories are wrong," he said. "I only tell them to you as +I have them from the bees. Or perhaps none of those particular +Princesses ever wanted to go out into the world to find anybody." +</P> + +<P> +"Or perhaps," added Sunny, "they were just found before they had time +to look for a Prince themselves. Do you think that was it? Anyhow, I +don't want to wait for a Prince, for Princes never come this way at +all; so I am going out into the world to seek my own fortune, and I +shall start this very moment!" +</P> + +<P> +She jumped down from the chocolate tree as she spoke, and danced round +Honey, clapping her hands with excitement. Honey was not surprised, +for nobody was ever surprised at anything in that country, but he was +just a little bit sad. +</P> + +<P> +"And I shall ask the first Prince I meet if he will come back with me," +continued Sunny; "just as the Princes always ask the Princesses in the +stories. He won't know I am not a Princess, will he? And you won't +tell him, will you, Honey dear?" +</P> + +<P> +"I shall not be there," said Honey the gardener's son. "I don't think +I want to look for a Princess; and I certainly cannot leave my garden." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said Sunny, and she was almost grave for an instant. "But I will +come back some day, when I have found my Prince, and then you shall be +my gardener," she went on consolingly. "And you don't mind my going +without you, do you, Honey dear?" +</P> + +<P> +"The Princes in the stories always went alone," answered Honey. +</P> + +<P> +So that was how Sunny the Princess went out into the world, without +knowing that she was a Princess. And of course everybody in the +village missed her; but the Queen, her mother, and Honey, the +gardener's son, missed her most of all. Before she went, however, +Honey taught her a song which she was to sing if she ever found herself +in trouble; and this was the song:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Friends of Honey,<BR> +Come to Sunny;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Whizzing, whirring,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Stillness stirring,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Sunlight blurring;</SPAN><BR> +Friends of Honey,<BR> +Fly to Sunny!"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +and this she learned by heart before she started. +</P> + +<P> +Now, she travelled a great many days without meeting with any +adventures at all. It was such a delightful country that everybody was +pleased to see her, and she never had any difficulty in getting enough +to eat, for she had only to smile and that was all the payment that +anybody wanted. But one day, as she was walking through a wood, a +great change suddenly came over everything. Every sound was hushed, +and the birds stopped singing, and the wind stopped playing with the +leaves; there was not a rustle or a movement anywhere, and the sun had +gone behind a cloud. In the whole of her short life the little +Princess had never seen the sun go behind a cloud, and she felt +extremely inclined to cry. The further she went, the darker and +gloomier it grew, and at last she could not bear it another minute; so +down she sat by the side of the road and wept heartily. +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo! you must stop that noise or else you will be banished," said a +voice, not very far on. Sunny was so astonished that she stopped +crying at once and looked up to see a little old man with a white beard +staring at her. He was a very sad-looking little man, and his mouth +was drawn down at the corners as though he had been on the point of +crying all his life and had never quite broken down. +</P> + +<P> +"Why must I stop?" asked Sunny. "If you feel unhappy you <I>must</I> cry, +must n't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dear me, no," said the sad little man, in a tone of deep gloom. "I am +always unhappy, but I never cry. The whole country is unhappy, but +nobody is allowed to cry. If you cry, you must go away." +</P> + +<P> +"What a funny country!" cried Sunny, and she at once began to laugh at +the absurdity of it. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't do that," said the little man, in a tone of still greater alarm. +"If you go on making any fresh noises, you will get beheaded. Why +can't you be quiet? You can do anything you like, as long as you do it +quietly." +</P> + +<P> +"May n't I laugh?" exclaimed Sunny. "What is the use of feeling happy +if you may n't laugh?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is n't any use," said the sad little man. "Nobody ever is happy in +this country. Nobody ever has been happy since the King was bewitched +and the sun went away in a temper, and that was sixteen years ago. +Nobody ever will be happy again, unless the spell is broken; and the +spell cannot be broken until a Princess of the royal blood comes this +way, without knowing that she is a Princess." +</P> + +<P> +"How absurd!" said Sunny. "As if a Princess could be a Princess +without knowing she is a Princess!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" asked the sad little man, crossly. He had lived alone in +the dark, silent wood for such a long time that he began to find the +conversation tiring. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, because there are bands and flags and balls and banquets and +cheers and Princes and lots of fun, wherever there is a Princess," +replied Sunny. +</P> + +<P> +The sad little man looked more sad than before. +</P> + +<P> +"Then the spell will never be broken," he said, miserably; "because all +that noise would be stopped at once. If you have done talking you had +better go, or else we shall both be banished; and I advise you to take +off those wooden shoes of yours, unless you want to be clapped into +prison. But, first of all, tell me if you can look straight at the sun +without blinking." +</P> + +<P> +He always asked that of every little girl who came his way, in case she +should happen to be a Princess; for he was really a very wise little +man in spite of his sadness, and he knew that only eagles, and +Princesses who did not know they were Princesses, could look straight +at the sun without blinking. And he was so tired of feeling sad +without being allowed to cry, that he longed to have the spell removed +from the country, so that he need not keep back his tears any longer. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, of course I can, if there is a sun," laughed Sunny. And to her +astonishment the sad little man dropped straight on the ground, and put +his fists in his eyes, and began to cry at the very top of his voice, +just like any child in any nursery. +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever is the matter?" exclaimed Sunny. +</P> + +<P> +"Matter?" shouted the little man, who was shaken with sobs from head to +foot. "I was never so happy in my life! I have been longing to cry +for sixteen years." +</P> + +<P> +There had certainly not been so much noise in that wood for sixteen +years. For no sooner did the old man begin to weep, than the trees +began to rustle, and the birds began to sing, and the frogs began to +croak; and over it all came a faint glimmering of white light, as +though the sun were beginning to stretch himself behind the cloud. +</P> + +<P> +"What does it all mean?" demanded Sunny. +</P> + +<P> +"Go on to the palace and see," sobbed the sad little man, and he +pointed out the way to her between his tears. And Sunny set off +running in her wooden shoes as fast as she could go, and there never +was such a clatter as she made when she reached the town and ran +straight through the gates and all along the streets; and on either +side of her the people fell down in heaps, from sheer amazement at +hearing such a noise after sixteen years of silence. So nobody tried +to stop her; and she ran faster and faster and faster, and the light +grew brighter and brighter and brighter, till at last she stood in the +courtyard of the King's palace. There she saw beautiful ladies in +magnificent court dresses creeping about on their bare feet, and +handsome courtiers in elegant costumes walking on tiptoe in carpet +slippers; and there was the Captain of the King's guard drilling the +soldiers in whispers, and there were the soldiers pretending to fire +with guns that had no gunpowder in them; and there was the head +coachman making faces at the stable boy because he could not shout at +him, and there was the stable boy standing on his head because he was +not allowed to whistle. And into the middle of it all came the clatter +of Sunny's wooden shoes, as she ran across the courtyard, and up the +steps, and into the palace; and down dropped the ladies in waiting in +graceful groups, and down dropped the courtiers just anyhow; and all +the soldiers fell down in neat little rows, and the Captain of the +King's guard sat down and looked at them; and the head coachman shouted +as he had wanted to shout at all his stable boys for the last sixteen +years, and the stable boy waved his cap and cried "Hurrah!" And Sunny +went clattering along the great hall, past the page boys who were +playing marbles with india-rubber marbles, and past the kitchen where +the fires burned without crackling and the kettles never boiled over, +and up the wide marble staircase, and along all the passages, until the +sound of her coming even reached the King's ears. +</P> + +<P> +Now the King sat on his throne with cotton wool stuffed in his ears, in +case there should by accident be the least sound in the palace. But, +in spite of that, he heard the clatter of Sunny's shoes coming closer +and closer, and he began to feel terribly nervous lest there really was +going to be a noise at last. +</P> + +<P> +"What is that noise? Take it away and behead it at once!" he said to +the Prime Minister, in his most distinct whisper. But the noise +outside was now so great that the Prime Minister could not hear a word; +and the next moment the door was flung open, and Sunny the Princess ran +into the room. And the King looked so funny as he tried to make the +Prime Minister hear his whispers, and the Prime Minister looked so +funny as he tried to hear the King's whispers, that Sunny was obliged +to laugh; and when she had once begun she found she could not stop, so +she laughed and laughed and laughed; and when the poor, nervous old +King turned again to the Prime Minister to tell him to behead some one +at once, he found that the Prime Minister was laughing too; and +immediately all the pages in the hall, and the courtiers in the +courtyard, and the cooks in the kitchen, and the townspeople in the +streets, and the children in the nurseries, were all laughing as +heartily as they could. And when the sun heard all this laughter, he +finished making up his mind immediately, and came out from behind the +cloud and shone his very best once more. So there was the sunshine +again, and there was everybody laughing, except the King. +</P> + +<P> +Now, when the King found that no one was paying any attention to his +royal whispers, he began to grow angry, and without thinking any more +about it he shouted at the very top of his royal voice. And this was +so remarkable, after sixteen years of whispering, that the laughter was +instantly hushed; and even Sunny the Princess became grave, because she +wanted to see what was going to happen next. +</P> + +<P> +"Who are you?" demanded the King, pointing at her with his sceptre. +</P> + +<P> +"I am Sunny, of course," she said, stepping up to the throne in quite a +friendly manner. All the courtiers looked at one another and nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"She is Sunny, of course," they said, just as though there could be no +doubt about it whatever. +</P> + +<P> +"She is the little Princess your daughter," said a fresh voice from the +doorway. And there stood the Queen, who had not been able to stay by +herself any longer and had just come after Sunny as fast as she could. +When the King saw her, he quite forgot that she used to laugh too much, +and he came down from his throne in a terrific hurry and he kissed her +several times before the whole court; and Sunny kissed them both there +and then; and all the ladies in waiting in the room kissed all the +pages that were to be seen; and the courtiers stood in rows along the +wall and never got kissed at all. +</P> + +<P> +So that was how Sunny found out she was a Princess; and there were +bands and flags and balls and banquets and cheers and Princes and lots +of fun. For that evening the King gave a magnificent ball, to +celebrate the return of his daughter Sunny; and all the Princes in the +kingdom were invited to it. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said the Queen, as she carefully put on Sunny's beautiful new +crown, "you will be able to find your Prince, as you said you would." +</P> + +<P> +But Sunny shook her head and wondered why she felt so sad when +everything seemed to be going so well; and when the Queen had gone +downstairs to look after the supper, she went to the open window and +looked out into the garden. As she did so, there came a faint buzzing +and humming close at hand, and three beautiful brown bees flew down and +settled on her round white arm. And Sunny gave a cry of joy and knew +all at once why she had been feeling so lonely; and she began to sing +the song Honey the gardener's son had taught her:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Friends of Honey<BR> +Come to Sunny;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Whizzing, whirring,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Stillness stirring,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Sunlight blurring;</SPAN><BR> +Friends of Honey,<BR> +Fly to Sunny!"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +She had not nearly finished singing it before there came a distant +murmur in the still, warm air, and the murmur grew louder and louder +until it would almost have deafened any one if there had been any one +there to deafen. But the people in the palace were so occupied in +dressing for the ball that a thunderstorm would not have made any +difference to them; and as for Sunny, the sound only reminded her of +the village without a name, where she had been so happy with Honey. So +she leaned out of the window as far as she could, and waited until she +saw a dense cloud coming gradually towards her, so large that it +covered the whole of the setting sun. When it reached the palace it +hung just above it, and she could see quite plainly that it was made of +millions and millions of bees. Then the three bees which had dropped +on her round white arm floated up into the air and flew round her head +three times and went away to join the cloud of bees overhead. Sunny +knew then that they were going to do what she wanted; and she clapped +her hands and laughed, as the humming and buzzing began all over again, +and the cloud moved away as quickly as it had come. "Hurry, hurry, +dear little bees!" she cried from the palace window; and the next +moment there was not a bee left in the whole kingdom, for they had all +gone to the village without a name, in the other King's country. +</P> + +<P> +Everybody wondered why the Princess was so disdainful to all the +Princes who danced with her, that night. But nobody wondered any more +when Honey the gardener's son arrived; and this really happened, only +three days later. And he came, all in his gardener's clothes; and he +walked straight into the palace, just as Sunny had done; and she met +him in the great hall, where the King and the Queen and the whole court +were having a reception to receive one another. And they both shouted +with happiness and ran straight into each other's arms; and they kissed +and kissed and kissed, and then they fell to talking as fast as they +could; and they both talked at once for three quarters of an hour, +before either of them heard a word. Then they sat down on the steps of +the King's throne, just because it happened to be there, and Sunny told +him everything that had happened to her. Nobody interfered, not even +the Prime Minister, for Sunny had done so many curious things since her +arrival that one more or less made very little difference. +</P> + +<P> +"It is very dull being a Princess," said Sunny. "And I don't like +palaces much, after all; they are such stuffy places! The people who +live in them are rather stuffy, too. And there is n't a chocolate tree +in the whole of the garden; did you ever know such a stupid garden? +Oh, I am so glad you have come, Honey dear!" +</P> + +<P> +"Have you found your Prince?" was all that Honey said. +</P> + +<P> +"Princes are not a bit amusing," said Sunny. "There were fifty-two +Princes at the ball, the other night, but I did n't like any of them. +I am dreadfully tired of being a Princess. It is ever so much nicer in +the village, under the chocolate tree." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course it is," said Honey. "We 'll go back, shall we?" And +nothing the King could say would make them see any other side to the +question. Indeed, as the Queen pointed out to him, if he had not +allowed the people to keep so many bees it might never have happened at +all. So the end of it was, that the Queen stayed with the King; and +Honey and Sunny were married that very same day and went back to live +in the village without a name. And there they built a very small house +in a very big garden, and they planted it with rows of chocolate trees, +and rows of acid-drop bushes, and lots of almond rockeries; and the +fairies came and filled it with flowers from Fairyland that had no +names at all, but were the most beautiful flowers that any one has ever +seen, for they never faded or died but just changed into something else +when they were tired of being the same flower. +</P> + +<P> +So no wonder that Honey and Sunny were happy for ever and ever! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<A NAME="img-071"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-071.jpg" ALT=""COME WITH ME, POET," SAID THE LITTLE PRINCESS" BORDER="0" WIDTH="510" HEIGHT="643"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Little Princess and the Poet +</H3> + +<P> +There was once a Poet whom nobody wanted. Wherever he went, he was +always in the way; and the reason for this was his inability to do +anything useful. All the people in all the countries through which he +passed seemed to be occupied in making something,—either war, or +noise, or money, or confusion; but the Poet could make nothing except +love, and that, of course, was of no use at all. Even the women, who +might otherwise have welcomed him, could not endure the ugliness of his +features; and, indeed, it would have been difficult to find a face with +less beauty in it, for he looked as if all the cares and the annoyances +of the world had been imprinted on his countenance and left it seared +with lines. So the poor, ugly Poet went from place to place, singing +poems to which nobody listened, and offering sympathy to people who +could not even understand his language. +</P> + +<P> +One day he came to a city he had never visited before; and, as he +always did, he went straight to the part where the poorer people lived, +for it was all about them that he wrote the poetry to which nobody +listened. But, as usual, the poor people were so full of their +troubles that they could not even understand him. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the use of telling us we are unhappy?" they grumbled. "We +know that already, and it does not interest us a bit. Can you not do +something for us?" +</P> + +<P> +The Poet only shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"If I did," he replied, "I should probably do it very badly. The world +is full of people who are always doing things; the only mistake they +make is in generally doing them wrong. But I am here to persuade them +to do the right things for a change, so that you may have your chance +of happiness as well as they." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we shall never be happy," the people said. "If that is all you +have to say, you had better leave us to our unhappiness and go up to +the King's palace. For the little Princess has been blind from her +birth, and her great delight is to listen to poetry, so the palace is +full of poets. But none of them ever come down here, so we do not know +what they are like." +</P> + +<P> +The Poet was overjoyed at hearing that at last he was in a country +where he was wanted; and he set off for the palace immediately. +</P> + +<P> +"Who are you, and what do you want?" demanded the royal sentinels, when +he presented himself at the palace gates. +</P> + +<P> +"I am a Poet," he replied. "And I have come to see the Princess, +because she is fond of poets." +</P> + +<P> +"We have never seen a poet like you," said the sentinels, doubtfully. +"All the poets in the palace have smooth, smiling faces, and fine +clothes, and white hands. Her Royal Highness is not accustomed to +receiving any one so untidy as yourself." +</P> + +<P> +The Poet looked down at his weather-beaten clothes and his toil-worn +hands; and he stared at the reflection of his wrinkled, furrowed face +in the moat that surrounded the palace; and he sighed in a disappointed +manner. +</P> + +<P> +"I am a Poet," he repeated. "How can a man be a poet if his face is +smooth and his hands are white? No man can be a poet if he has not +toiled and suffered and wandered over the earth, for the sake of the +people who are in it." +</P> + +<P> +Just then he heard a woman's voice speaking from the other side of the +gates; and looking through them, he saw a beautiful, pale Princess, +standing there all by herself, with a look of interest on her face. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the little blind Princess," thought the Poet, and he bowed +straight to the ground though he knew quite well that she could not see +him. The sentinels saluted, too, for they were so accustomed to +saluting people who never saw them at all that the blindness of the +little Princess made no difference to them. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me," said the Princess, eagerly, "the name of the man with the +wonderful voice, who is saying all those beautiful, true things." +</P> + +<P> +"Please your Highness," said the sentinels, "he <I>says</I> he is a Poet." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," cried the little Princess, joyfully, "at last you have come; I +have been waiting for you all my life! At last I have found a real +Poet, and the Queen-mother will see now that all those people in there, +who say the same things over and over again in their small, thin +voices, are not poets at all. Come in, Poet; why do you stay so long +outside?" +</P> + +<P> +So the drawbridge was let down, and the sentinels saw what a mistake +they had made and did their best to pretend that they had not made it +at all; and for the first time in his life the Poet felt that he was +not in anybody's way. +</P> + +<P> +"Come with me, Poet," said the little Princess, holding out her small +white hand to him. "If you will take my hand, I shall feel quite sure +you are there." +</P> + +<P> +So the little blind Princess and the Poet went into the palace, hand in +hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I have found a Poet," she announced to the whole court, just as it was +sitting down to luncheon. +</P> + +<P> +"What! Another?" groaned the King from the top of the table. "I +should have thought five-and-forty were quite enough, considering the +demand." +</P> + +<P> +"This is a <I>real</I> Poet," continued the little Princess, still holding +the Poet's hand. "I knew him by his wonderful voice. I am so glad he +has come; and now, we can send away all the others, who are not poets +at all." +</P> + +<P> +Now, this was a little awkward, for the five-and-forty poets were all +present; and being mostly the younger sons of kings, who had only taken +up poetry as an accomplishment, they were also suitors for the +Princess's hand, which made it more awkward still. So the Queen +coughed uncomfortably, and all the ladies in waiting blushed +uncomfortably, and the five-and-forty poets naturally looked +uncomfortable into the bargain. But the little Princess, who could see +nothing and never had been able to see anything, neither blushed nor +felt uncomfortable. +</P> + +<P> +"Will some one give place to the Poet?" she asked with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +The Queen, who was generally full of resources, felt that it was time +to interfere. +</P> + +<P> +"Do not listen to Her Royal Highness," she said, soothingly, to the +five-and-forty poets. "She is so terribly truthful that she does not +know what she is saying. I have tried in vain to break her of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know where she gets it from," growled the old King, who had a +great dislike to scenes at meal times. +</P> + +<P> +The five-and-forty poets recovered their composure, when they heard +that the Princess was rather to be pitied than blamed; and the Queen +was able to turn to the cause of the disturbance. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you be kind enough to go?" she said to the Poet. "My daughter +did not know who you were because, unfortunately, she cannot see. She +actually mistook you for a poet!" +</P> + +<P> +"It is the first time," said the Poet, "that any one has made the +mistake. However, you are quite right and I had better go. You will +not like my poetry; I see five-and-forty gentlemen who can write the +poetry that will give you pleasure; mine is written for the people, who +have to work that you may be happy. Little lady," he added, turning to +the Princess, "I pray you, think no more of me. As for me, I shall +love you to the end of my days." +</P> + +<P> +Then he tried to go, but the small, white fingers of the little blind +Princess were round his own rough, tanned ones, and he could not move. +</P> + +<P> +"I loved you before you came," she said, smiling. "I have been waiting +for you all the time. Why are you in such a hurry to go, if you love +me?" +</P> + +<P> +The listeners grew more scandalised every moment. No one had seen such +love-making before. To be sure, the five-and-forty poets had written +love songs innumerable, but that was not at all the same thing. Every +one felt that something ought to be done and nobody quite knew how to +do it. Fortunately, the King was hungry. +</P> + +<P> +"I think you had better say the rest in private, when we have had +lunch," he said grimly, and the courtiers looked immensely relieved, +and a place was found next to the Princess for the Poet; and the Queen +and her ladies in waiting proceeded to make conversation, and lunch +went on as usual. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said the King, with a sigh, for meals were of far greater +importance to him than poetry, "you shall tell us one of your poems, so +that we may know whether you are a poet or not." +</P> + +<P> +Then the Poet stood up and told them one of his poems. It was about +the people who lived on the dark side of the city, and it was very +fierce, and bitter, and passionate; and when he had finished telling +it, he expected to be thrust out of the palace and banished from the +country, for that was what usually happened to him. There was a great +silence when he sat down again, and the Poet did not know what to make +of it. But the small, white fingers of the little Princess had again +stolen round his, and that was at least consoling. +</P> + +<P> +The Queen was the first to break the silence. +</P> + +<P> +"Charming," she said with an effort, "and so new." +</P> + +<P> +"We have heard nothing like it before," said the ladies in waiting. +"Are there really such people as that in the world? It might be +amusing to meet them, or, at least, to study them." +</P> + +<P> +The King glanced at all the other poets and said nothing at all. And +the five-and-forty kings' sons, who, if they were not poets, were at +least gentlemen, rose from their seats with one accord. +</P> + +<P> +"Her royal Highness was quite right," they said. "We are not poets at +all." +</P> + +<P> +Then they took leave of every one present and filed out of the room and +rode away to their respective countries, where, of course, nobody ever +suspected them of being poets; and they just remained Princes of the +royal blood and nothing else to the end of their days. +</P> + +<P> +"And you, little lady?" said the Poet, anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"It was wonderful," answered the little blind Princess. "But there was +no love in it." +</P> + +<P> +By this time the Queen had ceased to be impressed and had begun to +remember that she was a Queen. +</P> + +<P> +"We are quite sure you are a poet," she said in her most queenly +manner, "because you have told us something that we did not know +before. But we think you are not a fit companion for her royal +Highness, and it is therefore time for you to go." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" cried the Princess. "You are not to go. You are my Poet, +and I want you to stay here always." +</P> + +<P> +Matters were becoming serious, and every one set to work to try to turn +the little Princess from her purpose. +</P> + +<P> +"He is shockingly untidy," whispered the ladies in waiting. +</P> + +<P> +"And <I>so</I> ugly," murmured the Queen; "there is nothing distinguished +about him at all." +</P> + +<P> +"He will cost the nation something to keep," added the King, without +lowering his voice at all. +</P> + +<P> +But the little Princess turned a deaf ear to them all and held out her +hand again to the Poet. +</P> + +<P> +"I do not believe a word they say," she cried. "You cannot be ugly, +you with a voice like that! If you are ugly, then ugliness is what I +have wanted all my life. Ugliness is what I love, and you are to stay +here with me." +</P> + +<P> +In the end, it was the Poet himself who came to the rescue. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot stay with you, little lady," he said gently. "It is true +what they say; I am too ugly to be tolerated, and it has been my good +fortune that you could not see me. I will go away and put some love +into my poetry, and then, perhaps, I shall find some one who will +listen to me." +</P> + +<P> +But the poor little Princess burst out sobbing. +</P> + +<P> +"If I could only see," she wept, "I would prove to you that I do not +think you ugly. Oh, if I could only see! I have never wanted to see +before." +</P> + +<P> +"Little lady," whispered the Poet, bending over her, "<I>I</I> am glad that +you cannot see." +</P> + +<P> +And then, he turned and fled out of the palace and out of the city and +away from the country that contained the little Princess who had loved +him because she was blind. And he wandered from place to place as +before; but he told no one that he was a poet, for he had felt ashamed +of his poetry ever since the little Princess had said there was no love +in it. But there came a day when he could keep silent no longer, so he +went among the people once more and told them one of his poems. This +time, he had no difficulty in making them understand, for he told them +the story of his love for the little blind Princess. +</P> + +<P> +"Why," said the people, when he had finished, "the maid is easily +cured, for it is well known among our folk that a kiss on the eyelids +when asleep, from a true lover, will open the eyes of any one who has +been blind from birth." +</P> + +<P> +Now, when the Poet heard this, he was greatly perplexed. For to open +the eyes of his little Princess was to kill her love for him; and yet, +he could not forget how she had wept for the want of her sight, and +here was the power to give it back to her, and it rested with him alone +of all men in the world. So he determined to make her happy at any +cost, and he turned his face towards the King's palace once more and +arrived there at midday, after travelling for seven days and seven +nights without ceasing. But, of course, that was nothing to a poet who +was in love. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear me," said the King irritably, when the Poet appeared before him; +"I thought you had gone for good. And a pretty time we 've been having +of it with the Princess, in consequence! What have you come back for?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have come back to open the Princess's eyes," answered the Poet, +boldly. +</P> + +<P> +"It strikes me," grumbled the King, "that you opened everybody's eyes +pretty effectually, last time you were here. You certainly can't see +the Princess now, for she has gone to sleep in the garden." +</P> + +<P> +"That is exactly what I want," cried the Poet, joyfully. "Let me but +kiss her eyelids while she is sleeping, and by the time she awakes I +shall have gone for ever." +</P> + +<P> +"The Queen must deal with this," said the King, looking helpless in the +face of such a preposterous suggestion. Her Majesty was accordingly +sent for, and the Poet explained his mission all over again. +</P> + +<P> +"It is certainly unusual," said the Queen, doubtfully, "not to say out +of order. But still, in view of the advantage to be gained, and by +considering it in the light of medical treatment—and if you promise to +go away directly after, just like a physician, or—or a +singing-master,—perhaps something might be arranged." +</P> + +<P> +The end of it was that the Poet was taken into the garden, and there +was the little blind Princess sound asleep in her hammock, with a maid +of honour fanning her on each side. +</P> + +<P> +"Hush," whispered the Queen. "She must not awake, on <I>any</I> account." +</P> + +<P> +"No," echoed the poor, ugly Poet; "she must not awake—on <I>my</I> account." +</P> + +<P> +Then he bent over her, for the second time in his life, and touched her +eyelids with his lips. The Princess went on dreaming happily, but the +Poet turned and fled out of the city. +</P> + +<P> +"At least," he said, "she shall never know how ugly I am." +</P> + +<P> +That day, every Prince who was in the palace put on his best court +suit, in order to charm the Princess. But the Princess refused to be +charmed. She looked at them all, with large, frightened eyes, and sent +them away, one by one, as they came to offer her their congratulations. +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you congratulate me on being able to see you?" she asked them. +"Are you so beautiful, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, <I>no</I>," they said in a chorus. "Do not imagine such a thing for a +moment." +</P> + +<P> +"Then why should I be glad because I can see you?" persisted the +Princess; and they went away much perplexed. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me what is beautiful," said the little Princess to her mother. +"All my life I have longed to look on beauty, and now it is all so +confusing that I cannot tell one thing from another. Is there anything +beautiful here?" +</P> + +<P> +"To be sure there is," replied the Queen. "This room is very beautiful +to begin with, and the nation is still being taxed to pay for it." +</P> + +<P> +"This room?" said the Princess in astonishment. "How can anything be +beautiful that keeps out the sun and the air? Tell me something else +that is beautiful." +</P> + +<P> +"The dresses of the ladies in waiting are very beautiful," said the +Queen. "And the ladies in waiting themselves might be called beautiful +by some, though that of course is a matter of opinion." +</P> + +<P> +"They all look alike to me," sighed the little Princess. "Is there +nothing else here that is beautiful?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," answered the Queen, pointing out the wealthiest and most +eligible Prince in the room. "That is the handsomest man you could +ever want to see." +</P> + +<P> +"That?" said the Princess, disconsolately. "After all, one is best +without eyes! Can you not show me some ugliness for a change? Perhaps +it may be ugliness that I want to see so badly." +</P> + +<P> +"There is nothing ugly in the palace," replied the Queen. "When you +get used to everything you will be able to see how beautiful it all is." +</P> + +<P> +But the Princess sighed and came down from her golden throne and +wandered out into the garden. She walked uncertainly, for now that she +was no longer blind she did not know where she was going. And there, +under the trees where she had been sleeping a few hours back, stood a +man with his face buried in his hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Little lady," he stammered, "I tried to keep away, but—" +</P> + +<P> +Then the little Princess gave a shout of joy and pulled away his hands +and looked into his face for a full minute without speaking. She put +her small, white fingers into every one of his wrinkles, and she +touched every one of his ugly scars, and she drew a deep breath of +satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +"Just fancy," laughed the little Princess to the Poet; "they have been +trying to persuade me in there that all those Princes and people +are—<I>beautiful</I>!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<A NAME="img-089"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-089.jpg" ALT="THE ROCKING-HORSES RUSHED OVER THE GROUND" BORDER="0" WIDTH="506" HEIGHT="644"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Wonderful Toymaker +</H3> + +<P> +Princess Petulant sat on the nursery floor and cried. She was only +eight years old, but she had lived quite long enough to grow extremely +discontented; and the royal household was made very uncomfortable in +consequence. +</P> + +<P> +"I want a new toy," sobbed the little Princess. "Do you expect me to +go on playing with the same toys for ever? I might just as well not be +a Princess at all!" +</P> + +<P> +The whole country was searched in vain for a toy that would be likely +to please the Princess; but, as she already possessed every kind of toy +that has ever been heard of, nobody succeeded in finding her a new one. +So the little Princess went on crying bitterly, and the royal nurses +shook their heads and sighed. Then the King called a council in +despair. +</P> + +<P> +"It is very absurd," grumbled his Majesty, "that my daughter cannot be +kept amused. What is the use of an expensive government and a +well-dressed court, if there are not enough toys for her to play with? +Can no one invent a new toy for the Princess Petulant?" +</P> + +<P> +He looked sternly at all his councillors as he spoke; but his +councillors were so horrified at being expected to invent something +straight out of their heads that no one said anything at all until the +Prime Minister summoned up courage to speak. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps, if we were to send for Martin," he suggested, "her royal +Highness might consent to be comforted." +</P> + +<P> +"Who is Martin?" demanded the King. +</P> + +<P> +"He is my son," said the Prime Minister, apologetically; "and he spends +his days either dreaming by himself or playing with the Princess +Petulant. He will never be Prime Minister," he added sadly, "but he +might think of a way to amuse the Princess." +</P> + +<P> +So the King dismissed the council with much relief and sent for Martin +to come and play with his daughter. Martin walked straight up to the +royal nursery and found the spoilt little Princess still crying on the +floor. So down on the floor sat Martin too; and he looked at her very +solemnly out of his round, serious eyes, and he asked her why she was +crying. +</P> + +<P> +"I want a new toy," she pouted. "I am tired of all my old toys. Don't +you think you can find me a new toy to play with, Martin?" +</P> + +<P> +"If I do," said Martin, "will you promise not to be cross when I run +faster than you do?" +</P> + +<P> +The Princess nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"And will you promise not to mind when I don't want to play any more?" +</P> + +<P> +The Princess nodded again. +</P> + +<P> +"And will you promise not to call me sulky when I don't feel inclined +to talk?" continued Martin. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes!" cried Princess Petulant. "You won't be long before you +find it, will you, Martin?" +</P> + +<P> +"In four weeks from now," said the Prime Minister's son, "you will have +me with you again." +</P> + +<P> +"And I shall have my new toy," said the Princess Petulant, sighing +contentedly. +</P> + +<P> +Now, Martin was one of the few children who can see the fairies. He +knew how to coax the flower fairies to speak to him, and how to find +the wood fairies when they hid among the ferns, and how to laugh back +when the wymps made fun of him; and, above all, he knew how to find his +way to Bobolink, the Purple Enchanter, who knows everything. And he +found his way to Bobolink, on the evening of that very same day. +</P> + +<P> +Bobolink, the Purple Enchanter, sat on his amethyst throne in the +middle of a grove of deadly nightshade. He was the ugliest enchanter +any one has ever seen; and on each side of him sat an enormous purple +toad with an ugly purple smile on his face. Even the sun's rays shone +purple in the home of the Purple Enchanter; and Martin stared at him +for a whole minute without speaking. For, although Martin was two +years older than the little Princess Petulant, he was not a very big +boy for all that; and there was something that made him feel a little +queer in the purple face, and the purple hands, and the purple +expression of Bobolink. +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you say something?" growled Bobolink, in just the kind of +voice one would expect such a very ugly person to have. "What are you +thinking about, eh? If it's anything about me, you 'd better say so at +once!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Martin, as bravely as he could, "I was thinking that it +must be very odd to be so purple as you are. Of course," he added +politely, "I don't suppose you can help it exactly, because even the +sun is purple here, and perhaps you have got sunpurpled instead of +sunburned." +</P> + +<P> +"May I ask," said Bobolink, rolling his purple eyes about, "if you came +all this way on purpose to make remarks about me?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I did n't," explained Martin, hurriedly. "I came to ask you the +way to the Wonderful Toymaker, who makes all the toys for Fairyland. I +am going to fetch a new toy for the Princess Petulant." +</P> + +<P> +"And how do you think you are going to get it?" asked Bobolink, with a +chuckle. +</P> + +<P> +"That is exactly what I want you to tell me," said Martin, boldly. +</P> + +<P> +Now, Bobolink, the Purple Enchanter, was used to being visited by +people who wanted to get something out of him, because, as I said +before, Bobolink knows everything. But he had never come across any +one who did not begin by flattering him; and he took a fancy to Martin +from the moment he told him he was sunpurpled. So he smiled as well as +he could,—which was not very well, for he had never done such a thing +before and his jaws were extremely stiff,—and for the moment he hardly +looked ugly at all. +</P> + +<P> +"I like you," he said, nodding at the small figure of the Prime +Minister's son; "and I am going to help you. Of course, I know quite +well where the Wonderful Toymaker lives; but I have promised the pine +dwarfs not to tell, because it is the only secret they possess, and it +would break their hearts if any one were to hear it from me instead of +from them. You see, when a person knows everything he must keep some +of it to himself, or else there would be nothing left for anybody else +to say, and then there would be no more conversation. That is the +worst of knowing everything. But I can show you the way to the pine +dwarfs; and if you keep perfectly quiet and speak in a whisper to them, +they'll tell you all you want to know." +</P> + +<P> +"Why must I keep perfectly quiet and speak in a whisper?" asked Martin. +</P> + +<P> +Bobolink scowled, and became as ugly as ever again. +</P> + +<P> +"Now you want to know too much, and that is n't fair," he complained. +"I 'll tell you the way to the pine dwarfs, and you must find out the +rest for yourself. Go straight ahead and take the hundred and first +turning to the right, and the fifty-second turning to the left, then +turn round seventeen times; and if that is n't good enough for you I +'ll never help you again. Now, off you go!" +</P> + +<P> +Martin saw that he was no longer wanted and set off as fast as he +could. It took him a whole week to reach the hundred and first turning +on the right; and it was the most anxious week he had ever spent, for +he had to keep counting the turnings all the time and was dreadfully +afraid of losing count altogether. And the fifty-second turning on the +left was almost as bad, for his way took him through a large town, and +he dare not stay to speak to any one for fear of overlooking one of the +little streets. He left the town behind him at last; and after walking +for two days longer, he reached the fifty-second turning on his left, +and it led him to the middle of a vast sandy plain. +</P> + +<P> +"How queer!" thought Martin. "Not a single tree to be seen! Surely +the pine dwarfs don't live in a place like this? Perhaps old Bobolink +has only hoaxed me after all." +</P> + +<P> +However, he turned round seventeen times just to see what would happen; +and the first thing that happened was that he became remarkably giddy +and had to sit down on the ground to recover himself. When he did +recover he found he was in a beautiful thick pine wood, with the +sunshine coming through the branches, and flickering here and there +over the ground, and painting the great big pine trunks bright red. +Over it all hung the most delicious silence, only broken by the soft +passage of the wind through the pine leaves. Martin had almost +forgotten the warning Bobolink had given him, but, even if he had quite +forgotten it, nothing would have induced him to speak loudly in such a +stillness as that. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you there, little pine dwarfs?" he whispered, as he looked up +through the pine trees at the blue sky on the other side. No sooner +had his whisper travelled up through the hushed air than all the +branches seemed to be filled with life and movement; and what Martin +had believed to be brown pine cones suddenly moved, and ran about among +the trees, and slid down the long red trunks. And then he saw they +were dear little brown dwarfs, who surrounded him by hundreds and +thousands, and travelled up and down his boots, and stared at him with +looks full of curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +"Who are you, little boy, and where do you come from?" they seemed to +be saying; and as they spoke all together their voices sounded exactly +like the wind as we hear it in the pine trees. They were so gentle and +kind-looking that Martin was not a bit afraid and asked them at once to +tell him the way to the Wonderful Toymaker who makes all the toys for +Fairyland. They were delighted to tell him all they knew, for it was +their one secret and they were very proud of it; and so few people ever +came that way that they had very few opportunities of telling it. So +their honest little brown faces were covered with good-nature and +smiles, as they crooned out their information. +</P> + +<P> +"You must walk straight through the wood," they said, "until you come +to a waterfall at the beginning of a stream; and you must follow the +stream down, down, down, until it brings you to a valley surrounded by +high hills; and in that valley is the toyshop of the Wonderful +Toymaker, who makes all the toys for Fairyland." +</P> + +<P> +"That is simple enough, I 'm sure," said Martin. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said the pine dwarfs, wisely, "but it is not so easy to get there +as you think; for the stream leads you through the country of the +people who make conversation, and they try to stop every stranger who +passes by, so that they can make him into conversation; and that is why +so few people ever reach the Wonderful Toymaker at all." +</P> + +<P> +"Make conversation! How funny!" said Martin; and he almost laughed +aloud at the idea. +</P> + +<P> +"It is more sad than funny," said the pine dwarfs, sighing like a large +gust of wind that for the moment made Martin feel quite chilly; "for it +gives <I>us</I> so much to do. You see, they make conversation, and we make +silence; and the more conversation they make the more silence we have +to make to keep things even. They are always ahead of us, for all +that!" They sighed again. Martin looked puzzled. +</P> + +<P> +"Still, your silence is so full of sound," he said. The pine dwarfs +laughed softly, so softly that most people would have called it only +smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"Real silence, the best kind, is always full of sound; and of course we +only make the very best kind," they explained proudly. "Anybody can +make the other kind of silence by taking the air and sifting out the +noise in it. Now, <I>we</I> take the air, and when we have sifted out the +noise we fill it with sound. That's a very different thing. The worst +of it is," they added, sadly, "there is so little demand for real +silence. We have layers of it piled up at the top, of those pine +trees, and nobody ever wants it. The other silence is so much cheaper, +you see, and most people don't know the difference." +</P> + +<P> +"When I am grown up and have a house of my own," said Martin, "I shall +come and ask you to fill it with the very best silence for me." +</P> + +<P> +The pine dwarfs shook their little brown heads incredulously. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait till you are grown up," they said; "and then, if you will let us +fill one room for you, we shall be quite satisfied. Now, set off on +your journey; and if you want to escape being made into conversation, +you must not speak a single word until you reach the valley where the +Wonderful Toymaker lives." +</P> + +<P> +"Trust me!" laughed Martin. "It is only talking that is difficult; any +one can keep silent." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well; be careful, only be careful!" they sighed; and in another +moment they had all gone back to their pine trees, and nothing was to +be heard except the distant sounds with which they were filling the +silence. +</P> + +<P> +Then Martin walked on until he came to the rushing waterfall; and along +by the side of the stream he trudged and thought it was the very +noisiest stream he had ever come across, for it clattered over the +stones, and splashed up in the air, and seemed bent on getting through +life with as much fuss and excitement as it was possible to make. As +he walked along by its side, he discovered that the noise it made was +caused by millions of little voices, chattering and gossiping, +quarrelling and laughing, as busily as they could. +</P> + +<P> +"This must be the country where they make conversation," thought +Martin. "Well, I must be pretty careful not to let them know I can +talk." At the same time, the longer he walked by that talkative little +stream the easier it was to forget the silence in the pine wood; and he +began to think that, after all, one silent room would be quite enough +in the house he was going to have some day. Presently, there were not +only voices in the stream beside him but all around him as well, in the +trees, and the flowers, and the grass, and the air; and they were not +the pretty little voices of the fairies which he knew so well, but they +were the harsh, shrill, unpleasant voices of unpleasant people, who +must have spent their lives in chattering about things that did not +concern them. Then the voices came closer and closer to him, and +buzzed up round his head, and shrieked into his ears, asking him dozens +and dozens of questions, until it was all he could do not to shout at +them to leave him alone. +</P> + +<P> +"Who are you? Where do you come from? What do you want? Where are +you going? What are you doing here? Why don't you answer? How did +you get here? Whom did you meet on the way? Did they tell you +anything interesting? What is your name? How old are you? Who is +your father? What is your mother like? Does she give parties? Does +she invite many people? Do you know the King? Have you been to court? +Does the Queen dress well? Do you like jam or cake best? What is your +favourite sweet? Don't you think we are very amusing?" etc., etc., etc. +</P> + +<P> +These were only a few of the questions they asked Martin, but they +quite cured him of any wish to speak; and, instead of telling them +anything about himself, he just put his hands over his ears and ran as +fast as he could until he dropped down, very much out of breath, some +way further along the stream. As he sat there, delighted at having +escaped from all those impertinent voices, a curious little fish with a +bent back popped his head above the water and nodded to him. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning," said the fish. His tone was so friendly that Martin +forgot all about the warning of the pine dwarfs, and entered into +conversation with him. +</P> + +<P> +"This is a strange country," said Martin. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a very busy country," answered the fish. "None of us get left +alone for long; and as for me, I never get any peace at all. If I +could only get my tail into my mouth, things would be very different." +</P> + +<P> +"You look as though you had been trying a good deal," observed Martin. +"I suppose that is why your back is so bent." +</P> + +<P> +"Bent?" cried the fish, angrily. "Nothing of the sort! On the +contrary, it has a most elegant curve. It's not the shape I complain +about, it's the difference in the work. You see, if I could only get +my tail into my mouth I should be a Full-stop; and Full-stops have so +little to do nowadays that I should be able to retire at once. Being a +Comma is quite another matter; it's work, work, work, from year's end +to year's end. Hullo! What is it now?" +</P> + +<P> +His last remark was addressed to another fish, who seemed to have +succeeded in getting his tail into his mouth, and who spoke very +huskily in consequence. +</P> + +<P> +"Come along," he said to the Comma-fish; "you 've got to help me to +make a Semi-colon." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, dear, oh, dear!" replied the other. "I do wish Colons were more +used; it would at least give me a rest and use up some of you +Full-stops for a change." +</P> + +<P> +Martin was just going to sympathise with the poor little overworked +Comma-fish, when the storm of voices he had left behind suddenly +managed to overtake him; and there they were once more, buzzing round +his head and shrieking in his ears, until he was almost deafened by the +noise; while dozens of invisible hands were lifting him from the ground +and carrying him along at a terrific pace. +</P> + +<P> +"He has spoken, he has spoken!" the voices were shouting triumphantly, +as they bore him along. "He is ours to make conversation of!" +</P> + +<P> +Then they took him into a magnificent glittering palace, made of glass +of a thousand colours; and invisible voices told him it was all his and +he should be king over it, if he would only make conversation for them. +It was the most beautiful palace a king could possibly have wished for; +and even the Prime Minister's son was dazzled by it for the moment. +There was everything in it that a boy could want; if he pulled a golden +cord, down fell a shower of chocolate creams; if he went to the +strawberry ice room, there was a wooden spade for him to dig it out +with, and a wheelbarrow in which to bring it away; if he wanted a +present, he had only to turn on the present-tap and out came whatever +he wished for. So he immediately wished for a six-bladed knife, a real +pony, and a gold watch. For all that, he was not a bit happy. The +incessant talking around him never ceased for a moment; the air seemed +packed with people whom he never saw, but who asked him innumerable +questions which he never attempted to answer. Besides this, all the +furniture talked as well. When he opened the door it made remarks +about the way he did it, which were not at all polite. If he sat on +the arm of a chair, it pointed out to him in a hurt tone that chairs +were not intended to be used in that way. When he cut his name on the +mahogany dining-table, it shouted abuse at him until he had to paint +over the letters to appease it. The windows chatted pleasantly about +the weather when the wind blew, instead of rattling; and the fires +gossiped when they were lighted, instead of crackling and smoking. He +gave up riding his pony after it had told him the history of its +childhood for the fifteenth time; and when he found that his gold watch +was always telling stories instead of telling the time he had to get +rid of that too. As for his six-bladed knife, it wearied him so much +by telling him the same thing six times over that he threw it out of +the window as far as he could. All this was excessively trying to a +boy who had never talked much in the whole of his life; and the worst +of it was that he was prevented by magic from running away; so the four +weeks came to an end, and he had not found a new toy for the Princess +Petulant. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, the little Princess had been waiting, and waiting, and +waiting. In all the eight years of her life she had never waited so +patiently for anything; and the affairs of the country went on quite +smoothly in consequence. When, however, the four weeks were over and +Martin did not return with her new toy, Princess Petulant grew tired of +being good, and, once more, she lay on the nursery floor and sobbed; +and, once more, there was consternation in the royal household. So the +King called another council. +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't you got any more sons?" he demanded crossly of the Prime +Minister. The Prime Minister shook his head, and owned sadly that he +had only one son. +</P> + +<P> +"Then why do you lose him?" said the King, still more crossly. "Does +no one know where the Prime Minister's son has gone?" +</P> + +<P> +The councillors looked helplessly at one another. One thought that +Martin had gone to Fairyland; another said it was to Toyland; and a +third declared he must be with the wymps at the back of the sun. But, +as nobody knew how to get to any of these places, the suggestions of +his councillors only made the King more annoyed than before. At last, +he asked the Queen's advice; and the Queen proposed that the little +Princess should attend the council and explain why she was crying. +However, when they sent up to the royal nursery for the Princess +Petulant, there was no Princess to be seen; and the royal nurses were +rushing everywhere in great confusion, trying to find her. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a most extraordinary thing," cried the King, "that we cannot +keep anybody in the place! What is the use of children who do nothing +but lose themselves? There must be wympcraft in this!" +</P> + +<P> +The Queen only said "Poor children!" and set to work to have the +country searched for the missing pair, and sat down to cry by herself +until they could be found. +</P> + +<P> +What had really happened was quite simple. While the Princess Petulant +was sobbing on the nursery floor, something came through the open +window and dropped with a thud just in front of her. This astonished +her so much, that she stopped crying and looked up to see what it was. +There stood a little pine dwarf, holding his hands to his ears. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear, dear!" crooned the pine dwarf in his soft voice. "What are you +making such a noise for?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am crying because Martin has not come back," said the Princess, +sorrowfully. "He promised to fetch me a new toy, and he has never +broken his promise before. I do wish he would come back. Even if he +does n't bring me a new toy, I wish he would come back." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said the pine dwarf, smiling, "now I think I can help you. But +you must not cry any more; it is almost as bad as the noise they are +making in the country where Martin is imprisoned." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" cried Princess Petulant, clapping her hands; "do you <I>really</I> +know where Martin is?" +</P> + +<P> +"Come along with me and see," said the pine dwarf. The next thing the +Princess knew was that she was gliding through the air in the most +delicious manner possible; and she never stopped until she found +herself by the side of the waterfall, that stands at the edge of the +country where they make conversation. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot take you any further," said the pine dwarf; "because there is +so much noise down there that it would blow me into little pieces at +once. Follow the stream along until it brings you to a glass palace, +and there you will find Martin waiting for you. Whatever you do, +though, you must not speak a word to any one until you find him. Do +you think you can do this?" +</P> + +<P> +The Princess was thoughtful for a whole minute. +</P> + +<P> +"I can do it if I stop up my ears with cotton wool," she said. "I am +quite certain I should speak if I heard any one talking to me." +</P> + +<P> +The pine dwarf smiled again; and a linnet, who had overheard their +conversation, kindly offered the Princess a piece of cotton wool from +the nest he was making; and she thanked him as charmingly as a Princess +should, and immediately stuffed it into her two little pink ears. Then +she kissed her hand to the good little pine dwarf, and ran away along +the stream; and she never stopped running until she reached the +magnificent, glittering glass palace; and there she saw Martin right in +the middle of it, sitting at the table with his head in his hands. +</P> + +<P> +"I do believe he is crying!" thought Princess Petulant; and she very +nearly cried too at the mere thought of it, for no one had ever seen +the Prime Minister's son cry before. She picked up a stone instead, +however, and sent it right through the glass wall of the palace,—for +she was in far too great a hurry to go round to the door,—and she made +a hole large enough to slip through; and into the room she bounded, +where Martin sat thinking about her. +</P> + +<P> +They kissed each other a great many times; and Martin pulled the cotton +wool out of her two little pink ears, and told her all that had +happened, and how miserable he had been because he could not keep his +promise to her, and how dreadfully tired he was of conversation. +</P> + +<P> +"Even now," he added, sadly, "I don't suppose they will let me go with +you. Just listen to their stupid voices! I shall have to bear that +for the rest of my life." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, you won't!" buzzed the voices in the air. "You can go away as +soon as you like. It is quite hopeless to think of making you into +conversation; you are the most unconversational prisoner we have ever +captured. If the Princess had not put cotton wool in her ears we +should have caught her directly; and what splendid conversation she +would have made! Unfortunately, she is out of our power now, because +she reached you without speaking a word; so you can go off together as +soon as you like." +</P> + +<P> +They did not wait to be told twice, but set off at once, hand in hand, +and walked straight on until they reached the top of the hill that +slopes down into the valley where the Wonderful Toymaker lives. Then +they ran a race down the side of the hill; and of course Martin allowed +the Princess to win, so she was the first, after all, to see the most +wonderful toyshop in the world. It was so wonderful that she actually +remained speechless with astonishment, until Martin caught her up; and +then they stood side by side and stared at it. +</P> + +<P> +To begin with, it was not a toyshop at all. The whole of the valley +was strewn with toys: they lay on the ground in heaps, they were piled +high up on the rocks, they hung from the trees and made them look like +huge Christmas trees, and they covered the bushes like blossoms: +wherever the children looked, they saw toys, toys, toys. And such +toys, too! People who have never been to Fairyland can have no idea of +the toys that are made by the Wonderful Toymaker; even Martin, who was +a friend of the fairies, had never seen anything like them before. As +for the Princess Petulant—her large blue eyes were open, and her +little round mouth was open, and she could not have spoken a word to +please anybody. +</P> + +<P> +Then, suddenly, into the middle of it all stepped the Wonderful +Toymaker. Any one who has lived for thousands and thousands of years +might reasonably be expected to look old, but the Wonderful Toymaker +looked young enough to play with his own toys; when he laughed, the +children felt that they should never feel unhappy again; and when he +came running towards them, turning coach-wheels on the way, they felt +certain that he was only a very little older than themselves. For that +is what happens when a man has been making toys for thousands and +thousands of years. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear children, how pleased I am to see you!" he cried joyfully. +"At last, I shall have some one to play with! Come and look at my two +new tops." +</P> + +<P> +He took them by the hands and raced them across the valley to his +workshop, which was strewn with gold and silver tools with handles made +of rubies; and he took up a gaily painted top and set it spinning by +blowing gently upon it three times. As it spun it began to hum a tune, +and in the tune they could hear every sound that the world +contains,—birds singing and wind whistling, children laughing and +children crying, people talking and people quarrelling, pretty sounds +and ugly sounds, one after another, until the children were spellbound +with astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, oh!" cried Princess Petulant, as the top rolled over on its side. +"I never heard anything so beautiful before." +</P> + +<P> +"The top is yours, since you like it," said the Wonderful Toymaker, +handing it to her with a bow. "Now listen to my other new top." +</P> + +<P> +Then he took up another one, made of burnished copper, and gave it a +twist with his fingers, and it began to spin with all its might; and as +it spun round, the song it sang was one that could never be described, +for it was full of the sounds that do not exist at all, the sounds that +are only to be heard in Fairyland when we are lucky enough to go there. +It made the Princess Petulant feel sleepy; but Martin gave a shout of +pleasure when it stopped spinning. +</P> + +<P> +"I like that one much better," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the finest toy I have ever made," said the Wonderful Toymaker; +"and it is yours because you know how to appreciate it. Now, we will +play games!" +</P> + +<P> +They had never played such games in their lives before, nor had they +ever had such a delightful playfellow. He put such feelings of joy and +happiness into their hearts that the little Princess wondered how she +could ever have felt discontented, and Martin never once wanted to stop +and dream. They played with toys that would not break, however badly +they were treated; they chased one another over the rocks and through +the bushes, without getting out of breath at all; and when they could +not think of anything else to do, they laughed and laughed and laughed +and laughed. Then they sat down on the grass to rest; and the +Wonderful Toymaker sat between them and smiled at them both. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, we will refresh ourselves by eating unwholesome sweets," he said, +and he gave a long low whistle. Immediately, they were pelted from all +sides by the most delicious, unwholesome sweets that were ever made; +but, although they were ever so unwholesome, and although the children +ate quantities and quantities of them, they were not in the least bit +the worse for it; and when they had eaten all they could, the Wonderful +Toymaker filled their pockets for them, and laughed again. +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you stop here always?" he asked them. +</P> + +<P> +The children shook their heads. +</P> + +<P> +"I must go back to mother," said the Princess Petulant. "She must be +wondering where I am, now." +</P> + +<P> +"And I have got to be Prime Minister, some day," said Martin, with a +sigh. +</P> + +<P> +"You will never be Prime Minister," said the Toymaker, just as his +father was always saying. "Why can't you both stay with me? Only +think of all the games we can have, and the toys we can make, and the +unwholesome sweets we can eat! Won't you really stay and play with me?" +</P> + +<P> +However, when he saw that they were quite determined to go home, he +made the best of it and asked them whether they would like to go by +sea, or by sky, or by land. Martin wanted to go by sky, but when the +Princess said she would much prefer to go by land as she had come most +of the way by sky, the Prime Minister's son gave in at once and said +that he had meant to choose the land road all the time. So the +Toymaker fetched two beautiful rocking-horses and helped the children +to mount them, and said he should never forget their visit for the rest +of his life. He could not have said more than that, for of course he +has been living ever since. +</P> + +<P> +So they rode out of the valley and up the hill-side, and they waved +their hands to the Wonderful Toymaker who stood looking disconsolately +after them, and they wished they could have played with him just a +little longer. They had very little time even to wish, however, for +the rocking-horses rushed over the ground at such a pace that they +could see nothing they were passing; so, after all, they would have +been none the wiser if they had come by sky as Martin had wished. Then +the townspeople came out of their houses and stared with amazement, as +they saw their King's daughter and their Prime Minister's son racing +past them on wooden horses; but they had no time, either, to make +remarks on the matter before the children were out of sight again, for +the wooden horses never stopped until they brought their riders to the +palace gates; and then they disappeared and left Martin and the +Princess Petulant knocking for admission. +</P> + +<P> +Then there was a hullabaloo! The Queen dried her tears and hugged them +both, one after another; and the King dismissed the council which had +not helped him in the least; and the Prime Minister was more convinced +than ever that his son would never be Prime Minister; and the two +children span their tops before the whole court and told the story of +their adventures. And it was at once written down, word for word, by +the Royal Historian, and that is how it has got inside this book. +</P> + +<P> +The two children never visited the Wonderful Toymaker again; and Martin +never became Prime Minister. One day he became King instead; and it +was all because he married the Princess Petulant the moment he was +grown up. They thoroughly enjoyed life for the rest of their days, and +so did everybody else in the kingdom, down to the Prime Minister and +the Royal Historian; and this was all because they never lost the +wonderful tops which had been given them by the Wonderful Toymaker. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<A NAME="img-119"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-119.jpg" ALT="HE CURLED HIMSELF UP IN THE SUN AND CLOSED HIS EYES" BORDER="0" WIDTH="512" HEIGHT="640"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Professor of Practical Jokes +</H3> + +<P> +Years and years and years ago, in a country that has been long +forgotten, there lived a king called Grumbelo. In spite of his +extremely ugly name, which was certainly no fault of his, he was young, +handsome, and talented; and this made it all the more remarkable that +he had never thought of seeking a wife. He ruled his country so well +that not a single poor or ill-treated person was to be found in the +whole of it; and yet, it was the dullest country that has ever existed. +The reason for this was plain; the King was all very well in his way, +and to be well-governed no doubt has its advantages, but the people +were unreasonable and they wanted more than this. They wanted court +balls, and court banquets, and royal processions through the streets, +with bands playing and flags flying; they wanted more play, and more +holidays, and more fun; and all these things, as every one knows well, +are only to be had when there is a Queen at court. The King, however, +was so well satisfied with himself that it never occurred to him how +dreadfully dull his kingdom was growing; and he was exceedingly +surprised when a number of the courtiers, headed by the Royal +Comptroller of Whole Holidays and the learned Professor of Practical +Jokes,—who had been positively out of work ever since his serious +young Majesty came to the throne,—waited upon him one morning, with +the humble request that he should begin to think about finding a Queen. +</P> + +<P> +"What more can you want?" asked the young King in astonishment. +"Surely a King, or at least a King such as I am, is enough for my +subjects! I am quite satisfied with myself: is it possible that the +country is not equally satisfied?" +</P> + +<P> +"The country is more than satisfied with your excellent Majesty," +explained the Comptroller of Whole Holidays. "The country has never +been so admirably governed before. It feels, however, that certain +other things are almost as important, your Majesty, as wise laws and +honest toil; such as—such as whole holidays, for instance." +</P> + +<P> +"And practical jokes," murmured the learned Professor at his side. +</P> + +<P> +His Majesty was silent. It seemed incredible that the country should +want anything more than the excellent government of King Grumbelo; but +he was fond of his people at heart,—in spite of the dulness to which +he had brought them, and so he consented in the end to give them a +Queen. +</P> + +<P> +"Go and find me the most beautiful, the most silent, and the most +foolish Princess in the world," he said to them. "She must be the most +beautiful because I shall have to look at her, and the most silent +because I am able to talk for both of us, and the most foolish because +I can be wise for her as well as for myself. If you find me a Princess +like this I will make her my Queen." +</P> + +<P> +Not long after, the King held a reception for all the beautiful +Princesses who could be collected at such a very short notice. There +were a hundred and fifty altogether; but although they were without +doubt both beautiful and foolish, they never stopped talking for an +instant, and not one of them would King Grumbelo have for his Queen. +So the Royal Comptroller of Whole Holidays and the learned Professor of +Practical Jokes put their heads together once more, and in a few days' +time they came again to the King. +</P> + +<P> +"We have heard at last of the Princess who would suit you," they said +to him. "She is so beautiful that the trees stop gossiping and the +flowers stop breathing when she passes by; and she is so silent that if +it were not for the wonderful expression in her eyes it would be +impossible to hold any conversation with her at all." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said King Grumbelo, nodding his royal head approvingly; "and is +she very foolish as well?" +</P> + +<P> +"That she must be, your Majesty," said the Comptroller of Whole +Holidays, looking nervously towards the Professor of Practical Jokes, +"because, your Majesty,—well, because—" +</P> + +<P> +"Because she has refused to have anything to do with your Majesty," +boldly interrupted the Professor. +</P> + +<P> +"What?" cried the King, astounded. "She does not <I>wish</I> to be my +Queen?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not exactly that, your Majesty," stammered the Comptroller of Whole +Holidays; "but she declares she could never marry any one who—who—" +</P> + +<P> +"Who has so ridiculous a name as your Majesty!" said the Professor of +Practical Jokes without a moment's hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +King Grumbelo stepped down from his throne and merely smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"That is of no consequence," he observed. "Evidently she knows nothing +about me except my unfortunate name, and that I certainly did not give +myself. Tell me at once where this wonderful Princess is to be found." +</P> + +<P> +"That is exactly what we do not know, your Majesty," they confessed, +reluctantly. "As soon as the Princess heard that your Majesty wished +to make her a Queen she fled from the country, and we have not been +able to discover where she has hidden herself!" +</P> + +<P> +"No matter," said King Grumbelo, actually omitting to scold them for +their stupidity; "it is never difficult to find the most beautiful +Princess in the world! Bring me my horse at once; you can make ready +for the royal wedding as soon as you please." +</P> + +<P> +The country was very badly governed while the King was away; but it was +certainly not dull. Every person in the kingdom was occupied in making +preparations for the royal wedding, and it was going to be such a +particularly grand royal wedding that the people were kept thoroughly +amused by looking forward to it alone. When, however, the last touch +had been put to the preparations, and there was positively nothing left +for any one to do, the people began to grumble. It was clear that +there could not be a marriage if nobody was there to be married, and no +tidings had been received of King Grumbelo since he rode away to fetch +his bride. There is no doubt that the discontent of the people would +have ended in a revolution if the Professor of Practical Jokes had not +hit upon a happy idea. "It is true that we cannot have a royal +wedding," said the Professor of Practical Jokes; "but we can pretend to +have one." +</P> + +<P> +The Comptroller of Whole Holidays was only too delighted to fall in +with the idea, and at once issued a proclamation to the effect that the +country should take a whole holiday until further notice. After that, +the people could not think of grumbling; they gave themselves up to +general rejoicing, and pretended, day after day, that the King was +being married, until they almost forgot that there was not even a king +in the country. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, King Grumbelo was riding by night and by day in search of +his beautiful, silent Princess. He rode for many months without +discovering a trace of her; but instead of growing tired of his search +he only became the more anxious to find her. One day, as he was riding +through a wood, he came upon a sweet-smelling hedge, all made of +honeysuckle and sweet-briar, so high that he could not climb it, and so +thick that he could not see through it. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear me!" thought King Grumbelo, "something charming must be hidden +behind so pretty a hedge as this!" He rode along it with his mind full +of curiosity until he came to two slender, pink-and-white gates, made +entirely of apple-blossom; and through these he could see a +fresh-looking garden with green lawns and gravel paths and bright +flower-beds, and in the middle of it all a dainty little house made of +nothing but rose leaves. The King was so impatient to know who was the +owner of such a delightful little dwelling that he knocked at once on +the gates for admission; and a dragon with a singularly mild and +harmless expression appeared inside, and asked him gently what he +wanted. The King looked at him in surprise; for, although he was +decidedly small for a dragon, he was certainly much too large and too +clumsy to live in a house made entirely of rose leaves. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you tell me who lives here?" asked King Grumbelo, politely; for, +as every one knows, it is always wise to be polite to a dragon however +small he may be. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes," answered the dragon, with a wave of his tail towards the +house and the garden; "I live here." +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense!" said the King, forgetting in his surprise to be polite. +"You could not possibly live in so small a house as that!" +</P> + +<P> +"If you want to know who lives inside the house you should say so," +answered the dragon, in an injured tone. "It is n't likely that a +well-bred dragon would live inside anything. You should be more +careful in the way you express yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well," said the King, impatiently, "perhaps you can tell me to +whom the house belongs?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I can't," answered the dragon, with a smile; "because it does n't +belong to anybody, you see. It is here because it is wanted, and when +it is n't wanted any longer it will cease to be here." +</P> + +<P> +"What a curious house!" exclaimed the King. +</P> + +<P> +"Curious? Not at all!" said the dragon, looking injured again. "It +would be much more curious if it were to remain here when it was n't +wanted. You should n't make needless remarks." +</P> + +<P> +If King Grumbelo had not been so anxious to find out who did live +inside the house he would certainly have ridden away, there and then; +but the more he looked at the beautiful garden and the charming little +dwelling of rose leaves, the more he longed for an answer to his +question. So he kept his temper with difficulty, and turned once more +to the aggravating dragon. +</P> + +<P> +"Does anybody live inside the house?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," answered the dragon. "Do they build houses in your +country to be looked at? I suppose you can't help it, but I have never +been asked so many senseless questions before." +</P> + +<P> +"Answer me one more and I will go away," said King Grumbelo. "Does a +beautiful Princess, the most beautiful you have ever seen, live inside +the house over there?" +</P> + +<P> +"There is no Princess in the place, be assured of that," answered the +dragon, emphatically. "I should not be here if there were; it is a +thankless task to keep guard over a Princess; it means nothing but +spells and fighting and unpleasantness, and in the end the Princess +complains that you have kept the right people away. Oh, no, nothing +would induce me to take another place with a Princess. We 've nothing +of <I>that</I> kind here." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I 'll bid you good-day," said King Grumbelo, for he did not mean +to waste any more time. Just as he was going to ride away, however, +the door of the little house opened, and out of it stepped the +sweetest-looking little lady the world has ever contained. She was so +beautiful that as she walked down the path the flowers stopped +breathing and the trees stopped gossiping; and she had such wonderful +eyes that to look at them was to know everything she was thinking +about. She glanced once at the King as he stood outside the gates of +apple-blossom, and then she turned aside without speaking a word and +passed out of sight among the flower-beds. Then the King knew that his +search was over; she was beautiful and silent enough to please him, +whether she were foolish or not; and he made up his mind on the spot +not to search any more for the disdainful Princess who had run away +from him. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is she?" he asked the dragon, eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"The Lady Whimsical, to be sure," answered the dragon. "What a lot of +questions you ask!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then go and tell the Lady Whimsical that if she pleases I would like +to speak with her," said King Grumbelo. +</P> + +<P> +The dragon did not move. +</P> + +<P> +"The Lady Whimsical never speaks," he observed. "It would really be +much wiser if you were to go away." +</P> + +<P> +"I am not going away," shouted the King, growing angry. "Go and ask +her at once if she will receive me, or I will put you out of the way +for good and all!" +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," said the dragon, sighing; "I suppose I must. What name?" +</P> + +<P> +"King Grumbelo," answered the King, proudly. +</P> + +<P> +He fully expected that the dragon would fall flat on the ground at the +mention of such an important name as his; but the dragon did nothing of +the kind. +</P> + +<P> +"It is not a bit of use expecting to come in here with a name like +that," he complained. "The Lady Whimsical cannot bear anything ugly, +and she has a particular horror of ugly names. I have strict orders +never to mention an ugly name in her presence. You had really better +go away." +</P> + +<P> +"I am not going away," shouted the King once more. "Go and tell the +Lady Whimsical that a great King, who has heard how charming and how +gracious she is, would like to make himself known to her." +</P> + +<P> +The dragon consented unwillingly to take this message, and ambled +clumsily away among the flower-beds. When he came back, he found the +King pacing restlessly up and down. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you keep still?" growled the dragon. "Your ridiculous name is +enough to make any one giddy without—" +</P> + +<P> +"What did the Lady Whimsical say?" interrupted King Grumbelo, +impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"The Lady Whimsical never says," answered the dragon drowsily, as he +curled himself up in the sun and closed his eyes; "but she will allow +you to look at her for five minutes every morning, at two hours after +sunrise." +</P> + +<P> +Two hours after sunrise on the following morning, King Grumbelo was +accordingly admitted into the garden beyond the pink-and-white gates of +apple-blossom. There sat the Lady Whimsical on the doorstep of her +rose-leaf dwelling, and in front of her stood the King. +</P> + +<P> +"You are the most charming person I have ever seen," declared the King. +</P> + +<P> +The Lady Whimsical smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"I never thought I should find any one so charming as you are," said +the King. +</P> + +<P> +The Lady Whimsical smiled again. +</P> + +<P> +"Nor so silent," continued the King. +</P> + +<P> +The Lady Whimsical smiled for the third time. +</P> + +<P> +"Nor so—" began the King, and then he paused, for he thought she might +possibly object to being called foolish, though foolish she undoubtedly +was if she did not wish him to stay longer than five minutes. As he +hesitated, the Lady Whimsical burst out laughing and ran inside her +little house of rose leaves, and banged the door in his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Time's up," said the dragon, and King Grumbelo went away puzzled. He +came back again, however, at the same time on the following morning; +and there sat Lady Whimsical on the doorstep of her rose-leaf dwelling, +just as though she were expecting him. +</P> + +<P> +"I have thought only of you since yesterday morning," sighed King +Grumbelo. +</P> + +<P> +The Lady Whimsical smiled as before. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall think only of you for the rest of my days," declared the King. +</P> + +<P> +The Lady Whimsical smiled even more than before. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know why I have come all this way to find you?" demanded the +King, growing bolder. +</P> + +<P> +The Lady Whimsical shook her head at him, burst out laughing, and ran +inside her rose-leaf house as she had done the day before. +</P> + +<P> +Two hours after sunrise on the following morning, the Lady Whimsical +was once more seated on her doorstep, and King Grumbelo was once more +standing in front of her. +</P> + +<P> +"You are so beautiful that I shall never tire of looking at you," said +the King. +</P> + +<P> +Again, the Lady Whimsical only smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"You are so silent that you will always allow me to talk enough for +both of us," continued the King. +</P> + +<P> +The Lady Whimsical smiled once more. +</P> + +<P> +"And since you are so foolish as to send me away every morning," said +the King, "you must surely be foolish enough to be the Queen of so wise +a King as myself." +</P> + +<P> +The Lady Whimsical had never laughed so heartily at anything as she did +at these words of King Grumbelo; and even after she had banged the door +in his face, he could still hear her laughter as it floated out from +the windows of the dainty little house of rose leaves. Now, all this +was very amusing for the Lady Whimsical, who was quite happy as long as +she had something to make her smile; but King Grumbelo was not so well +satisfied. +</P> + +<P> +It was not amusing to carry on a conversation entirely alone, and he +even began to wish secretly that the Lady Whimsical would not answer +all his questions by laughing at them. However, the Lady Whimsical +showed no signs of answering them in any other way, and at last the +King determined that he would make her speak to him just once, and +after that she might be as silent as she pleased. So, one morning, +when the dragon opened the apple-blossom gates to him as usual, he +strode up to Lady Whimsical with a resolute air. +</P> + +<P> +"Lady Whimsical, I want you to come away with me and be my Queen," he +said. +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head and smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" demanded King Grumbelo. +</P> + +<P> +She smiled again. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" shouted King Grumbelo at the very top of his voice. +</P> + +<P> +When the Lady Whimsical shrugged her shoulders and merely smiled again, +the King lost his patience completely, which of course was an absurd +thing to do, considering that he had come all this way on purpose to +find some one who knew how to be silent. +</P> + +<P> +"Will nothing induce you to speak just one word to me?" he exclaimed; +and then he ran right away from her mocking laughter, and did not even +wait to have the rose-leaf door banged in his face. +</P> + +<P> +It was a very crestfallen King Grumbelo who knocked at the gates of +apple-blossom on the following morning. But no one was sitting on the +doorstep of the dainty little house of rose leaves; and King Grumbelo's +heart gave a great jump. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is she?" he demanded of the dragon, who had followed him along +the path and was looking at him with his aggravating smile. +</P> + +<P> +The dragon became reproachful. +</P> + +<P> +"It is your fault," he complained. "I told you she never spoke; why +did n't you listen to me? You have driven her away now by your endless +questions; she has gone into her house of rose leaves, and the Wise +Woman of the Wood alone knows what will bring her out again." +</P> + +<P> +King Grumbelo looked up at the dainty little house of rose leaves, and +thought he heard the sound of muffled laughter floating through the +open windows. He turned once more to the dragon. +</P> + +<P> +"Where does the Wise Woman of the Wood live?" he asked. But the dragon +had curled himself up in the sun and was already half asleep. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't ask so many questions," he mumbled sleepily; and King Grumbelo +strode angrily out of the garden. He mounted his horse and allowed it +to take him wherever it would, for he had no idea where the Wise Woman +of the Wood lived, and one way was as good as another. Towards +sundown, a blackbird hopped on to his horse's head and sang to him, and +something in its song so reminded the King of Lady Whimsical's laughter +that he put out his hand to caress it. No sooner did he touch it, +however, than it turned into a squirrel, and scampered away from him so +mischievously that he was again reminded of Lady Whimsical and of the +way she, too, had run away from him. He put spurs to his horse and +chased the squirrel until he overtook it, when it immediately turned +into a field mouse and sprang into a large hole in the root of an old +elm tree; and after it went King Grumbelo without a moment's +hesitation. He left his horse outside, and threw his crown on the +ground, and crept into the hole as humbly as though he had not been a +King at all. The hole opened into a long, dark passage which grew +smaller and smaller as it wound deeper into the earth, so that King +Grumbelo could scarcely drag himself along on his hands and knees. It +came to an end at last, however, and he crawled into a cavern lighted +dimly by glow-worms. The field mouse was just ahead of him, but before +he could catch it he found that it was no longer there, and in its +place stood a tall witch woman, with a voice like a blackbird's, and +eyes like a squirrel's, and hair the colour of a field mouse. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me," said King Grumbelo, eagerly, "are you the Wise Woman of the +Wood?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I am," said the witch woman. "Do you think any one else +would have been so much trouble to catch? And now that you have caught +me, what can I do for you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to remove the spell from the Lady Whimsical, so that she +may be able to speak to me," said King Grumbelo. The witch woman +laughed outright. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no spell over the Lady Whimsical," she said. "She can talk +as much as she pleases." +</P> + +<P> +"Then why has she never spoken to me?" asked the King in astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"You wished for the most silent woman in the world," said the Wise +Woman of the Wood. "Now that you have found her, why do you complain?" +</P> + +<P> +For the first time in his life King Grumbelo felt distinctly foolish. +</P> + +<P> +"I made a mistake," he owned. "I don't want a silent Queen at all." +</P> + +<P> +"Then go back and tell her so," said the witch woman, promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think that will make her come out from her house of rose +leaves?" asked King Grumbelo. +</P> + +<P> +"I should n't wonder," said the Wise Woman of the Wood; "but go and see +for yourself. There is no need to thank me, for any one who takes the +trouble to follow the Wise Woman of the Wood to her home is welcome to +what he may find when he gets there." +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, before he had time to thank her he found himself once more +outside the tree, with his crown lying at his feet and his horse +standing at his side. He was in such a hurry to get back to the Lady +Whimsical, however, that he did not stay to pick up his crown, but rode +bareheaded all through the night and reached the hedge of sweet-briar +and honeysuckle precisely at two hours after sunrise. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear, dear," complained the dragon; "do you mean to say you 've come +back again?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have some good news for you," said King Grumbelo, jovially. "There +is no spell over the Lady Whimsical after all!" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course there is n't," said the dragon, as he slowly unfastened the +gates of apple-blossom. "Did n't I tell you she was n't a Princess?" +</P> + +<P> +King Grumbelo did not stay to argue the point with him, but walked +quickly up the path and stopped in front of the dainty little house all +made of rose leaves. +</P> + +<P> +"Lady Whimsical," he said, very gently and humbly, "will it please you +to smile on me once more? I have discovered that you are the wisest +person in the world, and that I am by far the most foolish." +</P> + +<P> +When the Lady Whimsical looked out of her window and saw the King +standing there so humbly without his crown, the tears came right into +her wonderful eyes and stayed there. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she cried, "I am so glad you have come back! I was afraid you +were never coming back any more." +</P> + +<P> +She held out her two little hands, and the King kissed them. Then she +came running down the stairs as fast as she could; and they sat on the +doorstep side by side, and talked. +</P> + +<P> +"I feel as though I should never stop talking again! Do you mind?" +asked Lady Whimsical. +</P> + +<P> +"I should like nothing better," said King Grumbelo. "But first of all +I must confess to you that I have an extremely ugly name. Do you think +you can bear to hear it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know it already!" laughed the Lady Whimsical. "Do you suppose I +have n't coaxed it out of my dragon long ago? But I, too, have +something to confess to you. Do you think it will make you angry?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am quite sure I shall never be angry again," declared the King. +</P> + +<P> +"Then," said Lady Whimsical, looking extremely solemn, "to begin with, +I am not a Princess at all." +</P> + +<P> +"As if I did n't know that!" laughed the King. "The dragon told me, +ever so long ago!" +</P> + +<P> +"He did n't tell you the rest, so stop laughing and listen to me," said +Lady Whimsical, with severity. "I knew all the while who you were and +what you wanted, and I pretended to be under a spell just to tease you." +</P> + +<P> +"I know that, too," said the King, triumphantly. "The Wise Woman of +the Wood told me." +</P> + +<P> +"Did she tell you that I came and hid myself here on purpose, because I +heard you were looking for a Princess and I wanted you to find me?" +asked the Lady Whimsical, softly. +</P> + +<P> +"Nobody told me that," answered King Grumbelo; "I guessed it for +myself." +</P> + +<P> +"What will the Professor of Practical Jokes say, when you come home +without the Princess you went out to find?" she asked mischievously. +</P> + +<P> +The King had no time to answer, for at that moment the Professor of +Practical Jokes—whose profession always required him to arrive +unexpectedly in places where he was not wanted—appeared at the +apple-blossom gates and answered Lady Whimsical's question himself. +</P> + +<P> +"There is nothing to say," he observed. "There never was a Princess +for your Majesty to find, so of course your Majesty has n't found her." +</P> + +<P> +"There never was anybody for you to find except me," added Lady +Whimsical, who was nodding at the Professor as though she had known him +all her life. "The other Princess was a practical joke, don't you see. +Do you mean to say my dragon did not tell you <I>that</I>, too?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then, who are you?" asked King Grumbelo in bewilderment. The Lady +Whimsical laughed, as she had laughed every day for a month when she +banged the door in the King's face. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you guess?" she exclaimed. "Why, I am just the daughter of the +Professor of Practical Jokes!" +</P> + +<P> +And the King only wondered that he had not guessed it long ago. +</P> + +<P> +As they went out through the apple-blossom gates, the dainty little +house of rose leaves vanished away because it was no longer wanted, and +so did the beautiful flower-garden, and the hedge of sweet-briar and +honeysuckle, and the sleepy good-natured dragon. They had no trouble +in getting home, for the Wise Woman of the Wood had a hand in the +matter, and the road came racing towards them as fast as an express +train; all they had to do was to stand quite still and wait until King +Grumbelo's country came hurrying along, which was the most convenient +way of travelling any one could possibly invent. When the city reached +them they found they were just in time to be married, for the people +were on the point of celebrating their wedding for the hundred and +first time; so the King and Queen were married almost before they knew +it themselves, and certainly before the people discovered that somebody +was really being married at last. This, however, was not at all +surprising, for the real wedding was very much the same as all the +make-believe ones, except that it took a little longer because the King +and Queen were not so used to being married as the people were to +marrying them. +</P> + +<P> +After that, every one was as happy as it was possible to be. The +country had grown so accustomed to being frivolous that it never became +serious again; and the King never made another law, because the people +were so fond of Lady Whimsical that they did everything she told them, +and therefore no laws were needed. The result of all this happiness +was that nobody in the kingdom ever grew old; and the Lady Whimsical +who sits and laughs on her throne at this very moment is the same Lady +Whimsical who sat and laughed on the doorstep of her rose-leaf house, +years and years and years ago. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<A NAME="img-145"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-145.jpg" ALT="THE LADY EMMELINA IS ALWAYS KEPT IN HER PROPER PLACE NOW" BORDER="0" WIDTH="511" HEIGHT="645"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Doll that came straight from Fairyland +</H3> + +<P> +The country was celebrating the tenth birthday of the Prince +Perfection. That particular country always celebrated the tenth +birthday of its princes and princesses, but never before had it gone so +completely wild with joy. The fireworks began punctually at sunrise, +and so did everything else that was worth beginning; and the happy +shouts of the people made conversation quite impossible, except in the +royal family, which was fully accustomed to being shouted at whenever +the country had a whole holiday. The Prince had five hundred and +fifty-four birthday presents, and his Secretaries spent all their +summer holidays in writing letters to acknowledge them; and every child +in the kingdom who was of the same age as the Prince was allowed to +come to the palace gates and receive a royal smile and a large box of +barley sugar from Prince Perfection himself. In the afternoon, the +Prince drove through the streets over a carpet of flowers and smiled +without stopping; and by his side sat the little Princess Pansy, who +was not smiling at all, for she had no birthday and no presents, and +two years was a long time to wait before she, too, should be ten years +old. Still, she was so fond of the Prince Perfection that she would +not have let him guess for a moment that she felt envious of him, +although this he was in no danger of doing, for he was so brimful of +happiness that he had no time to think about his sister at all. Truly, +it is worth while to be ten years old if one is a Prince! In the +evening there was a banquet of a hundred and twenty courses, which was +the exact number of months in the Prince's life; and the two children +sat at the head of the table between their royal parents, and managed +to keep awake until the moment arrived to cut the birthday cake. +</P> + +<P> +That was when the catastrophe occurred. At the moment nobody suspected +that it was going to be a catastrophe at all. It seemed the most +fortunate thing in the world that the Prince's godmother, the Fairy +Zigzag, should manage to arrive just in time to drink her godson's +health. Most people would think that a catastrophe was far more likely +to have occurred if the King and Queen had forgotten to invite the +Fairy Zigzag. That only shows how little most of us know about fairy +godmothers. The truth is that the Fairy Zigzag was not like other +godmothers at all. She did not like banquets and she did not like +noise; and she would much sooner have sent her present by post. It +would never have done, however, to refuse the Queen's invitation, for +that is what no fairy godmother has ever been known to do; so she came +at the very last minute with a very bad grace, and she meant to go away +again as soon as she could. +</P> + +<P> +Bang! What a noise she made as she came down the chimney in a cloud of +blue smoke! If she had not been quite so cross she would have arrived +through the window in her best chariot drawn by sea-gulls; but she was +determined to take as little trouble as possible over the matter, and +no one could take less trouble over anything than to come straight down +the chimney. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said every one with a little scream; and the Prince was so +startled that he cut an extremely crooked slice of cake. As soon as +the blue smoke cleared away, however, and he saw that it was his fairy +godmother, he recovered his good manners without any difficulty, and +walked across the room to greet her. +</P> + +<P> +"I am delighted to see you, dear godmother," said Prince Perfection +with his best birthday smile, which he had been saving up all day on +purpose. "Would you like to have a piece of cake?" +</P> + +<P> +His parents beamed with pleasure at the charming manners of Prince +Perfection; and the little Princess rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, +and wondered how long it would take to live through two whole years, so +that she might have a birthday party and a birthday cake, and a visit +from her fairy godmother. The Fairy Zigzag, however, did not seem at +all impressed by the charming manners of her godson. +</P> + +<P> +"I never eat cake," she said, without giving so much as a look at the +crooked slice of cake which the Prince was handing her on a real gold +plate. Her godson put down the cake immediately, and took up a silver +goblet filled to the brim with sparkling ginger-beer. +</P> + +<P> +"You have come just in time, dear godmother, to drink my health," he +said, just as politely as ever. +</P> + +<P> +"I never drink healths," said the Fairy Zigzag, frowning. "I have +plenty of my own, thank you. What's the matter with your health that +you want every one to drink it up? You 'd better keep it: it may come +in useful, later on." +</P> + +<P> +This was such an entirely new view of the matter that a complete +silence fell on every one in the room; and all the guests put down +their glasses of ginger beer, and stared into them to see if the +Prince's health was floating about on the top. In the midst of the +pause, the Fairy Zigzag stalked to the table, nodded to the royal +parents, and took the seat that had been reserved for her at the +Queen's right hand. +</P> + +<P> +"So good of you to come," murmured the Queen, nervously. "We never +thought you would give us so great a pleasure." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, didn't you? Then, why did you invite me?" snapped the fairy +godmother. The Queen said nothing, for she did not know what to say. +The King did his best to put matters right. +</P> + +<P> +"The Prince has been looking forward to your visit all day," he +hastened to say. "The dear boy has hardly known how to wait until this +evening." +</P> + +<P> +"Rubbish," said the Fairy Zigzag, laughing most unpleasantly. "It is +quite time for the dear boy to be in bed. What is that other child +doing, over there?" +</P> + +<P> +She pointed with her wand at the little Princess Pansy, whose eyes were +now so full of sleep that she could hardly keep them open. When, +however, she saw the Fairy Zigzag pointing at her, she instantly became +wide awake, and grew quite pink with pleasure at being noticed. It was +the first time any one had noticed her all that day; but of course, one +must expect to be forgotten when it is somebody else's birthday. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" cried Princess Pansy, holding out both her hands to the cross old +Fairy Zigzag. "Are you really a fairy godmother? I have never seen a +real fairy before, and I am so glad you have come!" +</P> + +<P> +The King and Queen were horrified at the familiar way in which the +little Princess was speaking to such an important guest as the fairy +godmother. It was true that she was only eight years old, but it was +quite time she learnt some of the charming manners for which her +brother the Prince was so remarkable. If the Fairy Zigzag had turned +her into a toad, or a marble statue, or something chilly like that, +they would not have been in the least surprised. But the Fairy Zigzag +did nothing of the sort. She just took the two hands the Princess +Pansy held out to her, and looked her full in the face; and directly +she did that all the crossness faded out of her own, and instead of +being just a disagreeable old fairy she suddenly appeared quite +good-natured and pleasant. This, indeed, was no wonder; for it would +have been difficult to look at the little Princess without feeling +happier for it. The King and Queen, however, mistook her silence for +anger. +</P> + +<P> +"Pray forgive her," they said, tremblingly. "She is so young, and she +doesn't know any better. We have tried in vain to teach her good +manners. Doubtless, when she is as old as the Prince Perfection she +will have learnt to be as polite as he is." +</P> + +<P> +"It is to be hoped not," said the Fairy Zigzag, turning once more to +the royal parents. "And if I know anything about it, she will never be +as polite as the Prince Perfection. That child is a real child, and +none of us will ever make her anything else. Now, I don't mean to +waste any more time; so come here, godson, and tell me what you would +like for a birthday present." +</P> + +<P> +The Prince Perfection did not know what to say. He longed to ask for a +steamboat that went by real steam, or a cannon that would fire real +gunpowder, or a balloon that would take him wherever he wished to go; +but he felt that only an ordinary boy would have asked for such things +as these, and Prince Perfection had always been told by his nurses that +he was not an ordinary boy. +</P> + +<P> +"Please give me whatever you like, dear godmother," he said, and hoped +very much that it would be a steamboat with real steam. +</P> + +<P> +"The dear boy does not like to appear greedy," said the Queen. +</P> + +<P> +"Fiddlesticks!" said the Fairy Zigzag, and then she pointed again at +the little Princess Pansy. "If I were to give <I>you</I> a present, do you +think you would know what to choose?" she asked her, smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, how beautiful!" exclaimed Princess Pansy, clapping her hands. To +have a present without a birthday was more than she had ever believed +possible. +</P> + +<P> +"What will you have?" asked the Fairy, raising her wand. The Princess +did not stop to think. +</P> + +<P> +"I will have a wax doll, please, with blue eyes and yellow hair and +pink cheeks, dressed in a white silk frock with lots of little frills," +she said, rapidly. "And, if you <I>could</I> manage it," she added, +glancing sideways at the Prince, her brother, "I think I should like +one that doesn't melt when you put it near the fire." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I can manage it," said the Fairy Zigzag, and down came her +wand with a sharp tap on the table. Princess Pansy gave a cry of +delight. In front of her lay the most beautiful wax doll any little +girl of eight years old has ever possessed. She had blue eyes and +yellow curls and pink cheeks; she was dressed in a white silk frock +with rows and rows of little frills; she had a gold crown perched on +her head, and she wore high-heeled shoes on her dainty feet; she had a +real pocket with a real lace handkerchief sticking out of it; she +carried a fan in one hand and a scent bottle in the other; and she +actually possessed real six-buttoned gloves, which could be drawn on +and off her little hands. Princess Pansy was breathless. She had +never seen anything so beautiful before. +</P> + +<P> +"You must thank the Fairy Zigzag," whispered the King and Queen. The +little Princess gave a sigh and looked up; it seemed so stupid to say +"Thank you" for such a superb dolly as hers. After all, she had to say +nothing whatever, for the Fairy Zigzag was no longer there; she had +gone away without a chariot, or a cloud of blue smoke, or even a bang! +</P> + +<P> +"She has given nothing to her godson," said the courtiers to one +another; and they fully expected that Prince Perfection would fly into +a passion. However, Prince Perfection did not fly into a passion. He +looked at the little Princess as she laughed with joy over her +beautiful new doll; he thought just once of the steamboat that would +have gone by real steam, and the cannon that would have fired real +gunpowder, and the balloon that would have taken him wherever he wished +to go; and then he remembered that he was ten years old and a Prince, +and he flung back his head and began to whistle. +</P> + +<P> +"It doesn't matter," he said, indifferently. "I have five hundred and +fifty-four presents upstairs, and I don't care for dolls." +</P> + +<P> +Little Princess Pansy had never been so contented in the whole of her +life. The palace seemed a different place to her, now that it +contained the doll that had come from Fairyland; and she immediately +named her the Lady Emmelina, which was the most important name she +could remember on the spur of the moment. From that day the Princess +and her doll were never separated. When the Prince and Princess went +for a drive, the Lady Emmelina sat up stiffly between them; when the +Professors came to give the children their lessons, they found that +they had to give them also to a little lady in a white silk frock with +rows and rows of little frills, who stared at them solemnly with her +large, impassive blue eyes, and never answered a word to any of their +questions. Princess Pansy no longer wished to be ten years old; she no +longer wished for anything: she had everything she wanted in the +unchangeable Lady Emmelina. For the Lady Emmelina never varied; the +Princess might have as many moods as she pleased, but the Lady Emmelina +merely smiled. For a constant companion, it would have been difficult +to find any one more delightful than the Lady Emmelina. The Prince +Perfection, however, took a very different view of the matter. Thanks +to the Lady Emmelina, he had no one to play with. He had never been +left so much to himself in his life, and in spite of his excellent +opinion of himself he found himself extremely dull. He could no longer +play cricket, since the Princess was not there to bowl for him; it was +no fun to play at soldiers if the Princess was not there to be on the +losing side; he could not pretend to be the Royal Executioner if the +Princess was not there to be executed. To be sure, he had five hundred +and fifty-four birthday presents; but what consolation could they +afford him when he was still without a steamboat that went by real +steam? The Lady Emmelina was the cause of all his misfortunes, and he +could not bear the Lady Emmelina. It was the Lady Emmelina who had +come in the place of his real steamboat and his real cannon and his +real balloon; it was the Lady Emmelina who had bewitched the little +Princess, his sister, and robbed him of his best playfellow. And the +Prince Perfection, whatever his faults were, was extremely fond of the +little Princess. +</P> + +<P> +"If you will come and play cricket with me, I will let you have the +first innings," he said to her in despair one sunny afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +"It is far too rough a game for the Lady Emmelina," answered Princess +Pansy, shaking her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Then choose any game you like, only do come and play with me," begged +the Prince. He had never had to beg so hard for anything before, for +the little Princess had been his willing slave as long as he could +remember. +</P> + +<P> +"We cannot possibly come this afternoon," answered Princess Pansy. +"The Lady Emmelina is going to have a tea-party. I will ask her to +invite you if you like." +</P> + +<P> +The Prince, however, would have nothing to do with Lady Emmelina's +tea-party. He went and sat by the pond instead, and thought how fine +his steamboat would have looked if it had gone puffing across the water +with real smoke coming out of the funnel. The mere thought of it made +him dislike the Lady Emmelina so much more than before that he made up +his mind to be revenged on her. Now, this was an extremely bold thing +even to think about, for she had come straight from Fairyland, and it +is never safe to meddle with toys that have come straight from +Fairyland. For all that, the Prince crept into the nursery that very +same night, when everyone in the palace was asleep, and prepared to +have his revenge on the waxen Lady Emmelina. There she sat in all her +magnificence on the nursery table, with both her gloves tightly +buttoned, and both her pointed toes turned upwards. The very sight of +her annoyed the jealous little Prince. He pattered across the floor on +his bare feet, and seized the Lady Emmelina by the arm. She greeted +him with a shrill and angry shriek. +</P> + +<P> +"How dare you? Let me go at once!" she screamed. The Prince was so +surprised that he dropped her on the table again. The Lady Emmelina, +shaking all over with fury, began smoothing out her rows of crumpled +frills. +</P> + +<P> +"The idea of such a thing!" she gasped. "I declare, you have actually +pushed my crown on one side, and there is no looking-glass in the room. +I have a great mind to report you to Fairyland." +</P> + +<P> +"You may do what you like," answered the Prince, who was no coward and +had recovered from his astonishment. "You have bewitched the Princess +Pansy, and I mean to hide you where no one will be able to find you." +</P> + +<P> +No sooner had he uttered these words than the Lady Emmelina turned +extremely pale. If he had tried to melt her at the fire or to cut off +her head with the scissors, which was the kind of thing he usually did +to his sister's dolls, she knew that she would have been safe; but he +had threatened to do the one thing that even the fairies who protected +her could not prevent him from doing. Her only hope was that he would +hide her somewhere so that she should have time to escape before +sunrise; for after sunrise all her powers of moving or speaking would +desert her and she would be nothing but a wax doll again. She need not +have been afraid, for the Prince did not mean to waste any more time +than he could help; and the next moment she was being carried swiftly +out of the room under his arm. Downstairs ran the little Prince, with +his hand over the Lady Emmelina's mouth to prevent her from screaming; +and along the marble passages he hastened, until he came to a little +door that led into the garden, and this he unlocked with the diamond +key that usually hung on the nail on the nursery wall. It is not +pleasant to run without shoes along a gravel path, and Prince +Perfection soon turned aside on to the lawn, and trotted over the grass +in search of a hiding place for the Lady Emmelina. A large white stone +lay in the middle of the lawn and gleamed in the moonlight. The Prince +did not remember having seen it there before; indeed, it was not likely +that the royal gardeners would have allowed it to remain in such a +place for a moment. He stooped down and rolled it on one side, and +found that it covered a neat round hole lined with green moss. It was +the very place for the Lady Emmelina; and he laid her gently in the +very middle of it. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you will not be very cramped," said Prince Perfection, politely. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Emmelina lay motionless on the mossy ground, and stared at the +moon. No one would have thought that she was the same dolly who had +screamed so angrily in the nursery ten minutes ago. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the nicest place I could have found in the whole garden," +continued Prince Perfection a little anxiously. After all, she was a +very beautiful doll, and she had come straight from Fairyland. +</P> + +<P> +Still the Lady Emmelina stared intently at the moon, with her large +blue eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I should never have thought of putting you anywhere if you had not +bewitched the Princess," declared Prince Perfection, feeling still more +uncomfortable. It was not easy to go on apologising to some one who +persisted in staring at the moon just as though no one was speaking to +her. +</P> + +<P> +"Why did you bewitch the Princess Pansy?" cried the little Prince. "If +you will promise not to bewitch her any more, I will take you straight +back to the nursery." +</P> + +<P> +But although he waited eagerly for her answer, not a word came from the +Lady Emmelina; and the Prince ceased to feel sorry for her, and gave up +apologising. +</P> + +<P> +"It is your own fault, and I don't care a bit," he said, impatiently; +and he rolled the large white stone over the hole, until the doll from +Fairyland was completely hidden. It is a wonder the fairies did not +interfere; but perhaps they had their reasons. +</P> + +<P> +There was no peace for any one in the palace when the Princess +discovered that the Lady Emmelina was gone; and she discovered it +before breakfast the very next morning. It was in vain that the Prince +offered to give her his five hundred and fifty-four birthday presents +if she would only stop crying: the Princess wanted her doll from +Fairyland, and nothing but her doll from Fairyland would console her. +Every one who loved the little Princess—and that was every one in the +palace—began looking for the Lady Emmelina; but no one succeeded in +finding a trace of her. This, however, was by no means so surprising +as it sounds, for the large white stone was no longer in the middle of +the lawn, and the neat round hole lined with green moss had disappeared +just as completely. The Prince was no less unhappy than his sister. +Nothing was turning out as he had expected; for, instead of being ready +to play with him again, the little Princess was far too miserable to +think of playing at all. He tried all day long to coax her into a good +humour; but bedtime came, and he had not won a single smile from her. +It was then that he made up his mind to go out into the world and find +the Lady Emmelina. So that night the Prince once more unhooked the +diamond key from the nail on the nursery wall, and stole into the +garden in the moonlight. This time, however, he had not forgotten to +put on his shoes and stockings and his second-best court suit, for when +a prince goes out into the world he must at least do his best to look +like a prince. When he came to the lawn he stopped and stared with +amazement; for there, in the moonlight, lay the large white stone under +which he had hidden the doll from Fairyland. Overjoyed at reaching the +end of his journey so soon, he ran forward and rolled the stone on one +side. There, to be sure, was the neat round hole lined with green +moss; but in the middle of it sat a large grasshopper, and not a sign +of the Lady Emmelina was to be seen. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince was so disappointed that he had the greatest difficulty in +remembering that he was ten years old, and that crying was therefore +out of the question. The grasshopper was winking at him as though he +understood how he felt. +</P> + +<P> +"I guessed you would come," he said, in a kind voice. "I just waited +on purpose." +</P> + +<P> +"Where has she gone?" asked Prince Perfection, dolefully. +</P> + +<P> +"Ask me something easier than that," answered the grasshopper. "I +didn't see her go. I happened to look in as I was passing; and when I +found she was gone I thought I'd just wait and tell you she was gone, +don't you see?" +</P> + +<P> +"What is the good of waiting to tell me something I could have found +out for myself?" asked Prince Perfection. "If you can't help me to +find her, you might just as well not be there." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't say I couldn't help you to find her," said the grasshopper, +looking hurt; "though if you are going to be cross about it I don't +know that I will." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," cried Prince Perfection, "I will never be cross again, if you +will help me to find the Lady Emmelina." +</P> + +<P> +"Then why did you hide her in the first place?" asked the grasshopper. +The Prince looked foolish. +</P> + +<P> +"Because I had no one to play with," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"If you do find her," continued the grasshopper, "do you think the +Princess will play with you again?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no," sighed the Prince. "She will only want to play with the Lady +Emmelina." +</P> + +<P> +"Then don't try to find the Lady Emmelina," said the grasshopper, +promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"I must," said Prince Perfection. "Anything is better than seeing the +Princess cry. I took her doll away, you see, and it is my fault that +Pansy is so unhappy. I don't mean to go home again until I have found +the Lady Emmelina." +</P> + +<P> +"Right you are," said the grasshopper. "You're the man for me. I'll +help you as far as I can, but you must come down here first; I can't go +on shouting like this." +</P> + +<P> +"Down there?" said the Prince. "The hole is much too small." +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense! Come and try," said the grasshopper, and indeed, before he +tried at all, the Prince found himself inside the neat round hole, with +the mossy walls reaching far above his head, and the grasshopper +shaking hands with him. +</P> + +<P> +"Feel all right?" asked the grasshopper. "Sit down and get your +breath. These sudden changes are apt to be exhausting if you are not +used to them." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you used to them?" asked the Prince, when he had recovered enough +breath to speak. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear me, yes!" said the grasshopper with a chuckle. "When I get up in +the morning I never know how many changes I may not have to go through +before the day is over. Don't think I am complaining though, for of +course it is part of my profession." +</P> + +<P> +"What is your profession?" asked the Prince. +</P> + +<P> +"Chief Spy in Particular to the Fairy Queen," answered the grasshopper. +"It's very hard work, I can tell you; some days I haven't a moment to +myself. Of course, I find out a great deal that nobody else knows, +which is always amusing. Yesterday, for instance, if I hadn't been a +cockchafer, a doll's teapot, a garden seat, a rose tree and a nursery +table, I shouldn't know as much as I do about you and the Lady +Emmelina." +</P> + +<P> +"Then please tell me what I must do in order to find the Lady +Emmelina," begged the Prince. +</P> + +<P> +"By all means," said the grasshopper, cheerfully. "Go straight on +without turning to the right or the left; and whenever some one greets +you, ask him politely to give you what he is thinking about, and then +you will be able to find the Lady Emmelina." +</P> + +<P> +It seemed rather a roundabout way of finding anything; but, as the +grasshopper disappeared directly he had finished speaking, there was +nothing to do but to follow his advice. The first part was easy +enough, for just in front of him the Prince noticed a little door in +the green mossy wall, which he was quite sure had not been there +before; and through this he straightway walked. He immediately found +himself in a blaze of sunshine on the sea-shore, with green waves +stretching before him as far as he could see, and nothing on either +side of him except the flat stony beach. "It's all very well to tell +any one to go straight on, but how am I to get across the sea?" thought +the Prince. He had never been afraid of anything in his life, however, +so he ran down the beach and put one foot into the white foam at the +edge. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-day to you!" said a voice. "Who are you, and what do you want?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am Prince Perfection, and I want what you are thinking about," +answered the Prince, boldly, although he could not see who was speaking. +</P> + +<P> +"That is a strange thing to want," said the voice; "for I was just +thinking about a little steamboat that would go by real steam; and how +you can possibly want such a thing as that is more than I can +understand." +</P> + +<P> +At that moment there was a faint puffing sound in the distance, which +came nearer and nearer; and presently over the waves rode a most +perfect little steamboat, with real smoke coming out of the funnel. It +was just large enough for the Prince, and he stepped on board directly +it came near enough, and put his hand on the little brass wheel. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you very much," he said as loudly as he could, in the hope that +the owner of the mysterious voice would hear him. Nobody answered him; +but he wondered why an old crab, who was shuffling along the beach, +chose that particular moment to wink at him. +</P> + +<P> +Certainly, no one has ever reached the shore on the opposite side of +the sea so quickly as Prince Perfection in his real steamboat. It was +a pleasure to hear it puff as it cut through the big green waves; and +he stood like a real captain with his hand on the little brass wheel, +and steered it right into a bay that seemed waiting on purpose for it. +It was very sad that it should disappear directly he stepped out of it; +but as it had come from nowhere at all because he wanted it, he could +not complain because it went back to nowhere at all when he had done +with it. So he sighed twice, and then walked straight ahead as before, +up the beach and over a flat grassy plain, covered with yellow poppies +and gorse bushes and purple heather. Nothing could have been easier +than this; and Prince Perfection had not the slightest wish to turn to +the right or the left, until he came suddenly upon a thick clump of +gorse bushes which lay in the very middle of his path. He made two +attempts to clamber over it; but, each time, he was caught in the gorse +bushes and was scratched all over; and even if one is ten years old and +a prince, it is hard to bear being scratched all over by a gorse bush. +Prince Perfection began to wonder if it would be very wrong to follow +the path to the right until he should come to an opening, but before he +had time to decide such a difficult question a shrill voice broke the +silence once more. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-day to you," it said. "Who are you, and what do you want?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am Prince Perfection, and I want what you are thinking about," +answered the Prince, boldly. +</P> + +<P> +"How ridiculous!" laughed the voice. "Why, I am thinking about a +cannon, a real cannon that will fire real gunpowder. Surely, you can +want nothing so useless as that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed, I do," said the Prince; and there stood the most perfect +little real cannon, loaded with real shot, and in his hand was a +lighted match ready to fire it with. He lost no time in pointing it +straight at the clump of furze bushes, and the real gunpowder made a +flash and a splutter, and the shot went right into the middle of the +yellow gorse and blew it all away so completely that not a trace of it +was left, except one small bush that the Prince had no difficulty in +jumping over. The cannon went back to nowhere at all, just as the +steamboat had done. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you very much," said the Prince Perfection as loudly as he +could; and again no one answered him. He was much surprised, however, +when he looked back and found that the gorse bush had disappeared as +soon as he had jumped over it. After that he walked on for a long way; +and just as he was beginning to feel tired, and the sun was beginning +to think about setting, he tumbled right up against a big iceberg. It +is not usual for icebergs to drop down suddenly in the middle of the +road, but that is what this particular iceberg did, and that is why the +Prince tumbled against it. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear me," sighed Prince Perfection, for even a prince's legs are not +very long when he is only ten years old, and it is not pleasant to have +to climb an iceberg at the end of a long walk. There was no help for +it, however, for there was the iceberg waiting to be climbed; so the +little Prince went straight at it as bravely as he could. Any one who +is accustomed to climbing icebergs will at once know how difficult +Prince Perfection found it; and he tried seven times without being able +to get up a single yard of it. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-day to you," said a voice, which sounded as though it came from +the very middle of the iceberg. "Who are you, and what do you want?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am so glad you have come!" exclaimed the Prince; although, for that +matter, no one had come at all. "I am Prince Perfection, and I want +what you are thinking about." +</P> + +<P> +"There certainly is no accounting for tastes," observed the voice. "I +was just thinking about a real balloon that would take me wherever I +wanted to go; and what use that would be to you I cannot imagine." +</P> + +<P> +The Prince did not trouble to explain what use it would be to him, for +at that very instant the balloon floated down towards him, and he +stepped into it as a matter of course. It was far more beautiful than +anything he had ever been able to imagine, however; and the movement of +it was so delicious that he fell sound asleep the moment it began to +carry him upwards; and he could not keep awake long enough even to +thank the sender of it. When he awoke, he was lying on the grass under +a silver birch tree, and in front of him was a red brick fort with +battlements and a drawbridge. It was so like the fort in which he kept +all his tin soldiers in the nursery at home that he was not at all +surprised when a sentinel without a head came out in answer to his +knock. He remembered melting off the head of that particular tin +soldier only two days before, and he was much relieved when he showed +no signs of recognising him. As the poor tin fellow had no head, this +was hardly to be wondered at. +</P> + +<P> +"Make haste, and let down the drawbridge," said the Prince, banging +away at the wooden gate with his fists; "I want to see if the Lady +Emmelina is inside." +</P> + +<P> +He thought he could do what he liked with his own property, but the +soldier without a head was evidently of another opinion. He did not +attempt to let down the drawbridge, and he answered the Prince in a +rhyme which he seemed to have made up for the occasion: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"What a ridiculous clatter<BR> +Over <I>such</I> a small matter!<BR> +I was peacefully napping<BR> +When you came with your tapping;<BR> +You are vastly mistaken<BR> +If you think I've forsaken<BR> +My official position<BR> +Because no physician<BR> +Could give me a cranium<BR> +Like a pot of geranium.<BR> +And these are my orders—<BR> +No one passes these borders<BR> +Unless he is able,<BR> +In song, rhyme, or fable,<BR> +The real, true intention<BR> +Of his coming to mention!"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +To be sure, it was not much of a rhyme, but it was not bad for a +soldier who had no head. When he had finished it he went away again, +and the Prince sat down disconsolately under the silver birch tree. He +felt more convinced than before that the Lady Emmelina was inside the +fort; but although he thought as much as most people would over an +ordinary arithmetic lesson, he could not think of a single rhyme. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-day to you," said a voice that seemed to come from the very top +of the birch tree. "Who are you, and what do you want?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am Prince Perfection, and I want what you are thinking about," +answered the Prince, although he hardly hoped, this time, that he would +get what he wanted. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you really mean it?" remarked the voice. "I was just composing a +song about a charming little lady in a white silk frock, who lives +behind that drawbridge over there. It is not very likely you can want +that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hurrah!" shouted the little Prince, standing on his head for joy. +"Then, it is the Lady Emmelina!" +</P> + +<P> +"The fact is," continued the voice, without noticing the interruption, +"I always make poetry when there is nothing else to do. So does the +tin soldier. He can't help it, poor fellow, because he has lost his +head, you see. If you have lost your head you cannot be expected to +make anything except poetry." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you lost your head, too, may I ask?" said the Prince, as politely +as he could put such an awkward question. +</P> + +<P> +"For the time being I have no head to lose," answered the voice. "That +is how I happened to be inventing a song just as you came by. Are you +sure there is nothing else you would like better? A nightmare, for +instance, or a thunder-storm?" +</P> + +<P> +The Prince was sure he would like nothing better; and the voice in the +birch tree sang him the following song, very softly: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Here I've come as I was bidden<BR> +To seek the dolly you have hidden—<BR> +The dolly with the yellow hair,<BR> +With cheeks so pink and eyes so fair,<BR> +With hands that move and feet that stand—<BR> +The doll that came from Fairyland.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Do you pretend you've never seen her,<BR> +The dainty Lady Emmelina?<BR> +I pray you let the drawbridge down,<BR> +I'm ten years old and I can frown!<BR> +I mean to find her—here's my hand!<BR> +I want the doll from Fairyland.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"The song I'm singing—let me mention—<BR> +Is not a song of my invention;<BR> +It comes like steamboats sometimes do,<BR> +Like real balloons and cannons too;<BR> +It comes like all that's real and grand,<BR> +All the way from Fairyland!"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Why," said Prince Perfection, "one would almost think you had made up +the song on purpose for me!" +</P> + +<P> +What the birch tree thought about it has never been known, for when the +little Prince looked up again it had gone away to nowhere at all. +</P> + +<P> +The soldier without a head let the drawbridge down, when he heard the +song that had come all the way from Fairyland. The Prince did not stop +to thank him, but hastened into the fort and looked round anxiously for +the Lady Emmelina. He had very little difficulty in finding her, +however, for she occupied nearly the whole of the ground floor. She +was sitting up against the wall, supported on one side by an ambulance +waggon, and on the other by a camp-fire which, strange to say, had not +even singed her elegant fan, although it burned with the brightest of +red and yellow flames. +</P> + +<P> +"There you are! Will you come home with me?" said the Prince, rather +nervously; for he was not much bigger than she was, now, and he was a +little afraid lest she should have unpleasant recollections of the neat +round hole lined with green moss. To his relief, she seemed quite glad +to see him. +</P> + +<P> +"To be sure I will," said the Lady Emmelina. "I should not be fit to +be seen if I stayed much longer in this dusty old place!" +</P> + +<P> +So they went home together, and of course that did not take them long, +for the way home is always the shortest way in the world. To begin +with, the balloon was waiting for them as they came out of the fort; +and it carried them all the way to the sea-shore before they had time +to notice that they were in a balloon at all. When they reached the +sea-shore they found that the steamboat was waiting for them, too; and +the steamboat landed them on the opposite side of the sea even before +they knew that they had stepped out of the balloon; and after that the +Prince never knew what did happen, for the next thing he noticed was +that he had grown to his proper size again, and was standing once more +in the royal nursery with the Lady Emmelina tucked under his arm. +There at the table in the middle of the room sat the little Princess +Pansy, and in front of her was a large bowl of bread and milk. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! Oh! You have come back at last!" cried the Princess, jumping +down from her chair. "I am so glad, I am so glad!" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you would be glad to see her again," said Prince Perfection, +and he handed her the doll from Fairyland. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't mean <I>that</I>!" exclaimed the little Princess. And then, sad +as it is to relate, they both forgot all about the Lady Emmelina; and +the next minute, she found herself lying face downwards on the floor, +while the Prince and Princess hugged each other. And it was of no use +for the royal nurses to talk about bread and milk, for not a thing +would the two children touch until they had talked as much as they +wanted. +</P> + +<P> +"You will not cry any more, now that you have the Lady Emmelina to play +with, will you?" said Prince Perfection, who, strange to say, did not +feel in the least bit jealous of the Lady Emmelina as long as she lay +face downwards on the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think I want to play with the Lady Emmelina much," answered +Princess Pansy. "I think I would rather play with you. It has been so +dull while you have been away." For, although the Prince did not know +it, he had been away for a whole month. +</P> + +<P> +"I am delighted to hear it," cried the little Prince. "Let us play at +Royal Executioner, and <I>you</I> shall be executioner." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no," said the little Princess. "I would <I>much</I> sooner be +executed." +</P> + +<P> +As they disputed the point politely, the grasshopper suddenly jumped in +at the window and nodded at them. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-day to you," he said. "I was just thinking at that moment about +a steamboat and a cannon and a real balloon. Strange, wasn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +Immediately the Prince found a steamboat in his right hand and a cannon +in his left; while outside the window floated a charming balloon, just +large enough for himself and Princess Pansy. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute," cried the Prince, as the grasshopper jumped on to the +window-sill again. "I want to tell you all about—" +</P> + +<P> +"No need to do that," chuckled the grasshopper. "You don't suppose +I've been a crab and a gorse bush and an iceberg and a silver birch +tree for nothing, do you?" +</P> + +<P> +That time he really hopped away to nowhere at all, and the children +have never seen him since. This does not matter in the least, however, +for they are not likely to want his help again; the Lady Emmelina is +always kept in her proper place now, and the Princess is no longer +bewitched by her. It is only reasonable to suppose that the Fairy +Zigzag had something to do with the change in the Lady Emmelina, but +the Fairy Zigzag says that she never troubled herself about it at all. +However that may be, the children have never had an unhappy moment +since Prince Perfection went out into the world to find the doll that +came straight from Fairyland. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<A NAME="img-179"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-179.jpg" ALT=""WILL YOU COME AND PLAY WITH ME, LITTLE WISDOM?"" BORDER="0" WIDTH="510" HEIGHT="654"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THOSE WYMPS AGAIN +</H3> + +<P> +There was great consternation in Fairyland, for it was suddenly +discovered that the sun had been shining crookedly all the morning. It +was consequently two hours later than anybody thought it was; and this, +as it happened, was a very serious matter, for all the fairies had been +invited to the christening of the little Prince Charming, and it would +never do for them to arrive late. Of course, the wymps were at the +bottom of it and the sun had no idea that he was not shining quite in +his usual way; but no one in Fairyland had time to trouble about that, +and, without waiting even for the butterflies to be harnessed, away +flew all the fairies in a regular scurry. Now, even fairies are apt to +do stupid things sometimes, especially when they are flustered and the +wymps have been at work; so there may be some excuse for what they did +on that particular morning. The fact is, they were so anxious to +arrive in time to give their christening presents to the royal baby, +that when they met a christening party coming along the road they never +stopped to see whether it was the right christening party or not, but +just flew down and presented their gifts to the baby, one after +another, as fast as they could speak. +</P> + +<P> +"I give you beauty," said one. "And I, thoughtfulness," said another. +"And I, wisdom," said a third. "And I, patience," said a fourth. "And +I, contentment," said a fifth; and so on, until all the gifts of +Fairyland had been given to the baby in the nurse's arms. Then, when +they had quite finished speaking, the poor, flurried little fairies +discovered that the baby was the daughter of a poor peasant and his +wife, while Prince Charming lived in quite another country, a very long +way off. It was a great calamity, no doubt, but nothing could be done, +for the fairies had no more gifts left; so they returned very sadly to +Fairyland, and hoped that the wymps would not find it out. Of course, +the wymps did find it out, for they had arranged the whole thing from +the very beginning. Still, the wymps are not nearly so bad as they +pretend to be; and when they had finished laughing over their joke they +did their best to make things right again by going in large numbers to +Prince Charming's christening. They behaved very noisily when they got +there; and they ate every bit of the christening cake and ended in +giving the baby Prince the only nice gift the wymps have the power to +give; and that is the nicest gift in the world, for it is called +Laughter. To be sure, there had never been such a topsy-turvey +christening party before; but all the guests enjoyed it thoroughly, and +that cannot be said of all the parties to which the fairies are +invited. The Fairy Queen could not help smiling when she heard what +happened. "Never mind!" she said. "Some day, Prince Charming shall +have all the gifts of Fairyland, too. Meanwhile, he has something far +better than we should have given him." +</P> + +<P> +The peasant's daughter grew up as beautiful and as wise as all the +gifts of Fairyland could make her. Everything she did was as well done +as the cleverest people in the world, all put together, could have done +it; and everything she said was as wise as the contents of all the +books in the King's library. When she cooked the Sunday dinner, she +made it taste like a banquet of twenty courses; she had only to look at +the flowers in the garden, and they bloomed as luxuriantly as though +they had been brought straight from Fairyland. She helped all the +village people when they were in a difficulty, for her advice was the +very best that could be had; and they soon forgot that she was only a +child, and they called her "Little Wisdom" instead of the ordinary name +by which she had been christened. She loved to sit by herself in the +cherry orchard, and she wondered how the other children could laugh and +play when there was so much thinking to be done. She never laughed nor +played herself, for the fairies had been so anxious to make her wise +and beautiful, that they had not thought of giving her anything so +ordinary as happiness. Every one envied her parents for having such a +wonderful daughter; but for all that the peasant and his wife were not +satisfied. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a great pity," grumbled her father, "that all the gifts of +Fairyland should have been wasted on a girl. If the child had been a +boy, now, she would have made some stir in the world." +</P> + +<P> +"For my part," sighed her mother, "I would gladly see her lose all the +gifts of Fairyland if she would only laugh and cry like other children." +</P> + +<P> +In the meantime the little Prince Charming was growing up without the +help of a single gift from Fairyland. Never had the palace contained +such an idle, careless little Prince; he laughed at everything that +happened, morning, noon, and night; he played tricks on all his +Professors instead of learning his lessons, and he could not keep grave +long enough even to say the alphabet. He was so determined to look on +the bright side of everything, that when people were angry with him he +thought it was only their way of being amusing; and when they tried to +punish him, he found it such a good joke that they very soon gave up +the attempt. The people, one and all, loved the merry little Prince +who laughed at life from his royal nursery and refused to grow any +older; but the King viewed the matter in quite another light. +</P> + +<P> +"What will become of the country," said his Majesty, "if the boy does +not learn to be serious?" +</P> + +<P> +"He is so happy," said the Queen, apologetically. "Is not that enough?" +</P> + +<P> +The King evidently thought it was not nearly enough, for he despatched +a page at once to fetch Prince Charming from the nursery. The Prince +came whistling into the room, with his hands in his pockets, which was +not a princely way of behaving, to begin with. +</P> + +<P> +"You are eleven years old," began the King, solemnly. +</P> + +<P> +"Everybody tells me that," said the Prince, smiling gaily. He supposed +grown-up people could not help saying the same thing so often; at all +events he did not mean to let it trouble him. +</P> + +<P> +"It is time you learned to be serious," continued the King, still more +solemnly. +</P> + +<P> +"To be serious? What is that? Is it a new game?" asked Prince +Charming, eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"Hush!" whispered the Queen, anxiously. "It is what every one has to +be,—the Prime Minister, and the Head Cook, and everybody." +</P> + +<P> +"Surely," laughed the little Prince, "if so many people are occupied in +being serious there is no need for me to bother about it!" +</P> + +<P> +"You cannot even read," said the King, frowning. +</P> + +<P> +"No; but my Professor can," said Prince Charming. "He can read the +longest words in the dictionary without taking breath. When any one in +the kingdom can read so beautifully as that, it would surely be +impolite to try to imitate him!" +</P> + +<P> +"The poorest children in the kingdom know far more than you do," said +the King, who was rapidly losing patience. +</P> + +<P> +"Then there are plenty of people to tell me everything I want to know," +smiled the Prince. "What is the use of knowing just as much as +everybody else? There would be nothing left to talk about." +</P> + +<P> +The King looked at the Queen in despair. +</P> + +<P> +"It is not the boy's fault," said the Queen soothingly; "you see, the +fairies did not come to his christening." +</P> + +<P> +"And the wymps did," sighed the King. "I suppose that is why we have a +stupid son without an idea in his head." +</P> + +<P> +Prince Charming took off his crown and felt his head very carefully. +</P> + +<P> +"What is an idea?" he asked. "And why have I no idea in my head? Have +you got one in your head, father?" +</P> + +<P> +The King was so angry at being asked whether he had an idea in his +head, that he sent Prince Charming straight back to the nursery. +However, as that was where the Prince liked best to be, he laughed more +than ever and was not in the least bit ashamed of himself. +</P> + +<P> +Now, Prince Charming was known to be so light-hearted and so careless, +that all the flowers and all the animals told him their secrets; for it +is always safe to tell a secret to some one who is not taken seriously +by other people. And the Prince, for his part, delighted in talking to +the flowers and the animals, because they never reminded him that he +was eleven years old, nor told him to stop laughing as all the other +people did, the people who were too clever to worry their heads about +flowers and animals at all. So the Prince soon jumped out of the +nursery window into his own little garden, where his name was written +several times in mustard and cress, and where the tiger lilies fought +with the scarlet poppies because they had been planted one on the top +of the other, and where the guinea-pigs and the rabbits and the white +mice ran wild and did what they liked. He took a very large +watering-can and watered himself and a very small rose tree for the +third time since sunrise, and then sat down and looked at the mould on +his fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"How funny everything is," said Prince Charming, laughing heartily. "I +have done nothing but water my rose tree, and yet all my fingers are +covered with mould! Now, the Prime Minister might water fifty rose +trees and he would never get a speck of mould even on his shoe buckles. +I suppose it is because the Prime Minister has learnt to be serious. +Oh dear! I do wish I had an idea in my head!" +</P> + +<P> +"What are you saying?" asked the rose tree, shaking off the effects of +the Prince's overwhelming attentions. "Why do you wish to have an idea +in your head?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just to see what it would feel like," answered the Prince. "I don't +even know what an idea is. Do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"An idea," replied the rose tree in a superior tone, "is what somebody +remembers to have heard somebody else say." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall never have an idea, then," said Prince Charming; "for I never +remember what anybody says. Is there no other way of getting an idea?" +</P> + +<P> +"To be sure there is," answered the rose tree; "but very few people +know of it. You can go to the Red Rock Goblin, if you like, and get a +whole new idea for yourself. He has quantities of ideas, piled up in +heaps; but very few people succeed in getting one." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall never succeed, then," said the Prince; "for I am the stupidest +boy in the world." +</P> + +<P> +"That doesn't matter," said the rose tree. "The Red Rock Goblin does +not care much about clever people, I fancy. Go and try." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I will," said the Prince. "It is sure to be amusing, at all +events. What must I do to get there?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is of no use to do anything," answered the rose tree. "If you are +the right sort of boy you will find yourself there, that's all." +</P> + +<P> +Evidently, Prince Charming was the right sort of boy; for as he looked +at the rose tree, it grew larger and larger, and redder and redder, +until it was no longer a rose tree at all, but just a large, square, +red rock. The little Prince was so amused at the transformation that +he burst out laughing; and when he looked round and found that the +garden and the palace had disappeared too, and that he was standing in +the middle of nothing at all, he laughed even more than before at the +absurdity of it all. +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo!" said a voice from inside the square red rock. "What are you +laughing at?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am laughing at everything," said the little Prince. "I always laugh +at everything; but that may be because I haven't an idea in my head." +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad to hear that," said the voice. "Most of the people who come +here have so many ideas of their own that I take good care not to let +them steal one of mine. However, step inside, and you shall have one +of my very best ideas." +</P> + +<P> +The Prince could hardly be said to have accepted this invitation, for +he had no time to move before he found himself transported to the +interior of the rock; and there he stood in the middle of a large, +square room, that hung dimly lighted by a red lantern from the roof. +The Red Rock Goblin sat facing him, at a little round table. He had a +bushy red beard that trailed on the ground, and in his mouth was a long +pipe from which rings of red smoke slowly curled up towards the roof. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you feel afraid?" asked the Goblin, blowing a particularly long +thin line of red smoke into the air, which curled round and round the +little Prince until he could hardly breathe. He could still laugh, +however; and directly he did that, the red smoke cleared away again and +raced up to the roof, as though it were frightened at the very sound of +the Prince's laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not at all afraid, thank you," said Prince Charming. "My +Professor says that I am far too stupid to understand the meaning of +fear. Besides, what is there to be afraid of?" +</P> + +<P> +The Red Rock Goblin waved his long, red, bony hand towards the shelves +that covered the four walls. +</P> + +<P> +"Those shelves are packed with new ideas," he said. "Most people are +afraid of new ideas." +</P> + +<P> +"How stupid of them!" said the Prince, beginning to whistle. "A new +idea must be more amusing to play with than an old one, I should think!" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course it is," answered the Goblin. "That is what new ideas are +for. However, as you don't seem afraid, I will find you a new idea to +play with." +</P> + +<P> +He put his pipe on the table, and fetched a pair of steps, and climbed +up to the highest shelf of all. When he came down again, he held a +small bottle in his hand, which he uncorked; and from this he poured +something into a red metal bowl on the table. Immediately a delightful +smell of pine woods and strawberry jam and sea-air and hot cakes and +chrysanthemums filled the air; and the Prince drank it in and laughed +with pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" he cried suddenly, putting his hand to his head, as the contents +of the bottle fizzed and bubbled in the red metal bowl and the smell of +pine woods and all the other things grew stronger. "So it is all +because the sun shone crookedly on my christening day!" +</P> + +<P> +"Just so," answered the Red Rock Goblin, looking intently into the red +metal bowl. "That is why all the gifts of Fairyland, which ought to +have been yours, were given to Little Wisdom. Now, if you were to go +straight off and find Little Wisdom—" +</P> + +<P> +"That's not a bad idea!" shouted the Prince. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course it isn't," snapped the Goblin, drawing himself up +indignantly. "It is a very good idea; one of the best I have ever +made. If you want a <I>bad</I> idea, you had better go somewhere else for +it." +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing for it but to apologise, and this the Prince did as +politely as he could, saying that if he had been a little more +accustomed to receiving ideas he would have known better how to behave +to this one. He then asked the Goblin to tell him the way to Little +Wisdom's home, but the Goblin answered him just as the rose tree had +done. +</P> + +<P> +"There isn't a way," he said. "If you are the right sort of boy you +will find yourself there, that's all." +</P> + +<P> +There was again no doubt whatever that Prince Charming was the right +sort of boy, for the walls of the square red rock fell down as flat as +the walls of a card house, and he found himself walking in a beautiful +cherry orchard, with bright green grass under his feet and showers of +white blossoms falling softly from above, with a blue and grey sky +overhead, and the sound of bees in the air. Under the largest cherry +tree sat a solemn little girl in a stiff white frock, with a large red +sunshade spread over her. The Prince looked at her doubtfully. If she +had been an ordinary little girl in a pinafore, with a laugh in her +voice, he would have asked her to play with him at once; but it was +impossible to be as friendly as that with a little girl in a stiff +white frock. What he finally did was what he always did when he was in +a difficulty—he began to laugh. The little girl only stared at him +more solemnly than before; and for the first time in his life Prince +Charming felt that laughing was a little out of place. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you come and play with me, Little Wisdom?" he said, taking off +his crown and making her his best court bow. +</P> + +<P> +"I never play," answered the little girl, who possessed all the gifts +of Fairyland. +</P> + +<P> +"That is a pity," observed the Prince, "for it is the only thing worth +doing. What do you do all day if you don't play?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think," answered Little Wisdom, gravely. "I think about everything +in the world; and when I have come to the end I begin all over again." +</P> + +<P> +"How queer!" said the Prince. "I have never thought about anything in +my whole life. It is much better to laugh." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it?" asked Little Wisdom, and she smoothed out the folds of her +stiff white frock thoughtfully. After thinking all day long for eleven +years it seemed as though it might make a change to learn to laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know," continued the Prince, "that you have all the gifts of +Fairyland? That is why I am the stupidest boy in the world." +</P> + +<P> +"I know," said Little Wisdom without seeming at all surprised, which +was, of course, only natural, for when one knows everything in the +world there is nothing left to be surprised at. +</P> + +<P> +"If the sun had shone straight on my christening day," said Prince +Charming, "I should have had all the gifts of Fairyland instead of you." +</P> + +<P> +"I know," said Little Wisdom again. It seemed to her very unnecessary +to talk so much about things that she had always known without being +told. +</P> + +<P> +"And if I had all the gifts of Fairyland instead of you, I should have +learnt to be serious," continued Prince Charming. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps you would," said Little Wisdom. She was beginning to wonder +if all stupid boys were as nice as this little Prince, who seemed to +take it for granted that she wanted to go on talking to him. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," continued Prince Charming, "I should not think of +depriving you of any of the gifts from Fairyland; but if you will come +back to the palace with me and teach me how to be serious I will give +you the wymps' gift in exchange. It is not a very nice present, +perhaps," he added humbly, "because it makes everybody complain of you +so much; but it is the only gift I have to offer you." +</P> + +<P> +"And what is the wymps' gift?" asked Little Wisdom. She was quite +interested now, for here at last was something that she did not know. +The Prince answered her with a peal of laughter; and Little Wisdom +began to feel decidedly odd. First of all, she felt a curious tickling +somewhere at the back of her head, and then a widening out of the +thinking lines on her forehead, and then a twitching sensation round +the corners of her mouth, and then—but it is not difficult to guess +what happened next. It takes all the fairies in Fairyland to make a +little girl wise when she is only eleven years old; but even a stupid +little Prince without an idea in his head can teach her to laugh! +</P> + +<P> +Now, when the peasant and his wife heard their daughter laughing in the +cherry orchard, they came hurrying out to see what could be the cause +of such a wonderful event. All the people in the village came running +too—men and women, boys and girls, one on the top of the other; and +they stood round in a ring and stared, while the merry little Prince +and the wise little girl in the stiff white frock laughed at nothing at +all. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the meaning of it all?" asked the good people. "Is it the +fairies' doing?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing of the sort," answered the Prince, again taking off his crown +and making them all his best court bow. "It is only because the sun +shone crookedly on my christening day. That is why I have come to +fetch Little Wisdom. I really hope you have no objection?" +</P> + +<P> +He said this so very charmingly that everybody felt it would be most +impolite to object; besides, Little Wisdom had taken the Prince's hand +and seemed to have settled the question already. As for her parents, +they were overjoyed at the idea. +</P> + +<P> +"After all," said her father, "the child will make some stir in the +world." His wife laughed and cried at the same moment. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall lose Little Wisdom," she said; "but, at least, she will learn +to be like other children." +</P> + +<P> +Prince Charming was as usual in a great hurry, for he could never +endure to wait for anything except his lessons; so he turned to the +nearest cherry tree and asked it to tell him the way home. +</P> + +<P> +"If you don't know the way home without being told, you are not at all +the right sort of boy," answered the cherry tree. Of course, as we +know already, Prince Charming was the right sort of boy; and the very +next minute he marched once more into the royal palace, and by his side +tripped a sedate little girl in a stiff white frock. +</P> + +<P> +"I have found Little Wisdom," he announced to his parents and the court +in general, as they sat over their afternoon tea. "She is going to +stay here and play with me for ever and ever. Isn't it fun?" +</P> + +<P> +"The boy will never be serious," sighed the King, although he looked +with approval at the solemn face of the little girl in the stiff white +frock. +</P> + +<P> +"I will teach him to be serious," said Little Wisdom, "because he has +already taught me how to laugh." +</P> + +<P> +But she never did teach him to be serious, for Prince Charming did +nothing but laugh to the end of his days. This did not, however, +matter quite so much as might be supposed, for when one plays all day +long with some one who knows everything there is to know, one need not +be so very wise oneself. And when the time came for Prince Charming to +rule the country, the Queen who sat beside him on the throne was a wise +and beautiful maiden in a stiff white frock. So the Prince laughed as +much as before, and the country was governed with all the wisdom of the +fairies. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-cat1.jpg" ALT="Catalog page 1" BORDER="0" WIDTH="372" HEIGHT="601"> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-cat2.jpg" ALT="Catalog page 2" BORDER="0" WIDTH="356" HEIGHT="576"> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-cat3.jpg" ALT="Catalog page 3" BORDER="0" WIDTH="364" HEIGHT="582"> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-cat4.jpg" ALT="Catalog page 4" BORDER="0" WIDTH="363" HEIGHT="585"> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-cat5.jpg" ALT="Catalog page 5" BORDER="0" WIDTH="362" HEIGHT="590"> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-cat6.jpg" ALT="Catalog page 6" BORDER="0" WIDTH="365" HEIGHT="578"> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-cat7.jpg" ALT="Catalog page 7" BORDER="0" WIDTH="364" HEIGHT="588"> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-cat8.jpg" ALT="Catalog page 8" BORDER="0" WIDTH="376" HEIGHT="587"> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-cat9.jpg" ALT="Catalog page 9" BORDER="0" WIDTH="366" HEIGHT="599"> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-cat10.jpg" ALT="Catalog page 10" BORDER="0" WIDTH="360" HEIGHT="574"> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's All the Way to Fairyland, by Evelyn Sharp + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALL THE WAY TO FAIRYLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 30400-h.htm or 30400-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/4/0/30400/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: All the Way to Fairyland + Fairy Stories + +Author: Evelyn Sharp + +Illustrator: Mrs. Percy Dearmer + +Release Date: November 3, 2009 [EBook #30400] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALL THE WAY TO FAIRYLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + + + +All the Way to Fairyland + +Fairy Stories + + +BY + +EVELYN SHARP + +AUTHOR OF "WYMPS" + + + + +WITH EIGHT COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS + +AND A COVER BY MRS. PERCY DEARMER + + + + +JOHN LANE + +THE BODLEY HEAD + +LONDON AND NEW YORK + +1898 + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY + +JOHN LANE. + + +FIRST EDITION + + +University Press: + +JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. + + + + +_By the Same author:_ + +WYMPS: FAIRY TALES. With eight coloured illustrations by Mrs. Percy +Dearmer. + +THE MAKING OF A SCHOOLGIRL. + +AT THE RELTON ARMS. + +THE MAKING OF A PRIG. + + + + +[Illustration: A PRINCESS FLOATING ABOUT ON A SOFT WHITE CLOUD] + + +THESE STORIES + +ARE FOR + +GEOFFREY AND CHRISTOPHER + +TRISTAN AND ISEULT + +MARGARET AND BOY + +AND + +EVERARD + +AND ALL THE OTHER CHILDREN + +WHO WOULD LIKE TO GO + +ALL THE WAY TO FAIRYLAND + + + + +Contents + + +CHAPTER + + I. THE COUNTRY CALLED NONAMIA + II. WHY THE WYMPS CRIED + III. THE STORY OF HONEY AND SUNNY + IV. THE LITTLE PRINCESS AND THE POET + V. THE WONDERFUL TOYMAKER + VI. THE PROFESSOR OF PRACTICAL JOKES + VII. THE DOLL THAT CAME STRAIGHT FROM FAIRYLAND + VIII. THOSE WYMPS AGAIN! + + + + +List of Illustrations + +BY MRS. PERCY DEARMER + + + I. A PRINCESS FLOATING ABOUT ON A SOFT WHITE CLOUD . _Frontispiece_ + + II. THE WYMPS SAY THAT QUEER BEGAN IT + + III. SUNNY WAS SO ASTONISHED THAT SHE STOPPED CRYING AT ONCE + + IV. "COME WITH ME, POET," SAID THE LITTLE PRINCESS + + V. THE ROCKING-HORSES RUSHED OVER THE GROUND + + VI. HE CURLED HIMSELF UP IN THE SUN AND CLOSED HIS EYES + + VII. THE LADY EMMELINA IS ALWAYS KEPT IN HER PROPER PLACE NOW + + VIII. "WILL YOU COME AND PLAY WITH ME, LITTLE WISDOM?" + + + + +The Country Called Nonamia + +Ever so long ago, in the wonderful country of Nonamia, there lived an +absent-minded magician. It is not usual, of course, for a magician to +be absent-minded; but then, if it were usual it would not have happened +in Nonamia. Nobody knew very much about this particular magician, for +he lived in his castle in the air, and it is not easy to visit any one +who lives in the air. He did not want to be visited, however; visitors +always meant conversation, and he could not endure conversation. This, +by the way, was not surprising, for he was so absent-minded that he +always forgot the end of his sentence before he was half-way through +the beginning of it; and as for his visitors' remarks--well, if he had +had any visitors, he would never have heard their remarks at all. So, +when some one did call on him, one day,--and that was when he had been +living in his castle in the air for seven hundred and seventy-seven +years and had almost forgotten who he was and why he was there,--the +magician was so astonished that he could not think of anything to say. + +"How did you get here?" he asked at last; for even an absent-minded +magician cannot remain altogether silent, when he looks out of his +castle in the air and sees a Princess in a gold and silver frock, with +a bright little crown on her head, floating about on a soft white cloud. + +"Well, I just came, that's all," answered the Princess, with a +particularly friendly smile. "You see, I have never been able to find +my own castle in the air, so when the West Wind told me about yours I +asked him to blow me here. May I come in and see what it is like?" + +"Certainly not," said the magician, hastily. "It is not like anything; +and even if it were, I should not let you come in. Don't you know +that, if you were to enter another person's castle in the air, it would +vanish away like a puff of smoke?" + +"Oh, dear!" sighed the Princess. "I did so want to know what a real +castle in the air was like. I wonder if yours is at all like mine!" + +"Tell me about yours," said the magician. "I may be able to help you +to find it." Of course, he only said this in order to prevent her from +coming inside his own castle. At the same time, a little conversation +with a friendly Princess in a gold and silver gown is not at all +unpleasant, when one has lived in a castle in the air for seven hundred +and seventy-seven years. + +"My castle in the air is much bigger than yours," she explained. "It +has ever so many rooms in it,--a large room to laugh in and a small +room to cry in--" + +"To cry in?" interrupted the magician. "Why, no one ever thinks of +crying in a castle in the air!" + +"One never knows," answered the Princess, gravely. "Supposing I were +to prick my finger, what should I do if there was n't a room to cry in? +Then, there is a middling-sized room to be serious in; for there is +just a chance that I might want to be serious sometimes, and it would +be as well to have a room, in case." + +"Perhaps it would," observed the magician, who had never listened so +attentively to a conversation in the whole of his long life. "What +else will you have in your castle?" + +"I shall have lots of nice books that end happily," answered the +Princess; "and they shall be talking books, so that I need not read +them to find out what they are about. I shall have plenty of happy +thoughts in my castle, too, and lots of nice dreams piled up in heaps, +and--well, there is just one thing more." + +"What is that?" asked the magician. + +"Well, I think I should like to have a Prince in my castle, a nice +Prince, who would not want to be just dull and princely like all the +princes I have ever danced with, but a Prince who would like my castle +exactly as I have built it and would play with me all day long. That +would be something like a Prince, wouldn't it?" + +"You could not possibly have a Prince," said the magician. "If you +allowed some one else even to look into your castle in the air, it +would vanish away like a puff of smoke. I have lived in my castle for +seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and I have never allowed any one +to put a foot in it." + +"Is it so beautiful, then, your castle in the air?" asked the Princess, +wonderingly. + +"I'm sure I don't know," said the absent-minded magician; "I don't +think I ever noticed. I came to live in it, because it was the only +place in which I could be left alone. That reminds me, that if you do +not go away at once I shall be obliged to become exceedingly angry with +you." + +"By all means," said the Princess, who had the most charming manners in +the world; "but I should like to have my castle first." + +"I have n't got it here," said the magician, looking about him vaguely. +"I know I saw it somewhere not long ago, but I can't remember what I +did with it. However, if you ask the people of Nonamia, they will be +able to tell you where it has gone. You will find that they are very +obliging." + +"Will they not be surprised?" asked the Princess. + +"Dear me, no! The Nonamiacs are never surprised at anything," said the +magician; and he drew in his head from the window. The Princess in the +gold and silver frock sailed away on her cloud, and landed presently in +the flat, green country of Nonamia. + +"Have you seen my castle in the air?" she asked, very politely, of the +first Nonamiac she met. + +"What is it like?" asked the Nonamiac, without showing the least +surprise. + +"It is ever so large and ever so beautiful, and it is packed full of +happiness, and there is a nice Prince inside," answered the Princess. + +"Ah," said the Nonamiac; "then it must be the one I saw being blown +along by the South Wind. But there was no Prince inside." + +The Princess thanked him and hastened away in the direction of the +South Wind until she met another Nonamiac, to whom she explained as +politely as before what she wanted to know. + +"Ah," said the Nonamiac, "that must be the castle I met just now as it +was being carried off by the North Wind. But I saw no Prince inside." + +The Princess turned round and hurried after the North Wind as fast as +she could go. As soon as she met another Nonamiac, however, she had to +turn round once more, for he told her that her castle had just been +stolen by the East Wind; and when she had been walking quite a long +time in the direction of the East Wind, she met yet another Nonamiac, +who told her that it was the West Wind who had taken away her castle in +the air. + +"It is too bad!" said the little Princess, sitting down exhausted on a +large stone by the side of the road. "Why should all the winds be +playing with my castle in the air?" + +"Castles in the air generally go to the winds," observed a traveller in +a dusty brown cloak, who was sitting on another large stone, not very +far off. She was quite sure he had not been there the moment before, +but, in Nonamia, there was nothing remarkable about that. The Princess +wiped the tears out of her eyes with a small lace handkerchief, and +looked at the stranger. + +"Mine is a very particular castle in the air, you see," she said. "It +is ever so large and ever so beautiful, and it is packed with happiness +and dreams, and _perhaps_ there is a Prince in it, too." + +"A Prince?" said the stranger. "What sort of Prince?" + +"A nice Prince," explained the Princess, "who can play games and tell +stories and be amusing. All the Princes I know can do nothing but +dance, and they are not at all amusing. I am afraid, though," she +added, sighing, "that I am going to have my castle without a Prince, +after all." + +"Would it do," asked the traveller in the dusty brown cloak, "if you +were to have a Prince without a castle?" + +"Oh, no!" answered the Princess, decidedly. "If you knew how beautiful +my castle in the air is, you would not even ask such a stupid question!" + +Then she again took up her small lace handkerchief, and she brushed the +dust from her gold and silver gown, and polished up her bright little +gold crown, and made herself as neat and dainty as a Princess should +be; for, in Nonamia, one never knows what may happen next, and it is +just as well to be prepared. And, in fact, no sooner was she quite +tidy than the West Wind came hurrying along with her castle in the air; +and the Princess gave a shout of joy and sprang inside it; and the West +Wind blew, and blew, and blew, until the castle that was packed full of +happiness, and the little Princess in the gold and silver gown, were +both completely out of sight. The traveller looked after them and felt +a little forlorn; then he picked up his stick and walked on until he +came to the magician's castle. This may seem a little surprising, as +he had no wings of any kind and the magician's castle was in the air; +but it must be remembered that it all happened in Nonamia. + +"Dear, dear! Here 's another of them!" grumbled the magician, when he +looked out of his window and saw the stranger standing below. After +being alone for seven hundred and seventy-seven years, it was a little +exhausting to have two visitors on the same day. Besides, a traveller +in a dusty brown cloak is not at all the same thing as a dainty +Princess in a gold and silver gown. + +"Good-day," said the stranger. "Are you the magician who has given a +castle in the air to a Princess in a gold and silver frock with a +bright little crown on her head?" + +"Very likely; but I cannot say for certain," said the absent-minded +magician. "I believe there was something of the kind, now you come to +mention it; but I could n't tell you what it was. However, I don't +mean to give away any more castles in the air, so the sooner you leave +me alone, the better." + +"I don't want a castle in the air," laughed the stranger. "People who +spend their lives in building real houses never have time to build +castles in the air! _I_ want to find the Princess, not the castle." + +"That you will never do as long as she is happy in it," said the +magician. "People who live in castles in the air are never to be +found, unless they have grown tired of living in them." + +"Oho!" chuckled the stranger. "Are _you_ tired of living in yours, +then?" + +The absent-minded magician tried to determine whether he should be +angry or not, when the stranger said this; but, by the time he had made +up his mind to be angry, he had forgotten what there was to be angry +about, and while he was thinking about it, the man in the dusty brown +cloak walked away and left him. + +Evidently, it was not very long before the Princess grew tired of +living in her castle in the air, for the very next day, as the +traveller was once more resting on the large stone by the side of the +road, down she came, castle and all, and stopped just in front of him. +Truly, there is no end to the wonderful things that happen in Nonamia! + +"Hullo!" said the traveller, smiling. "What is it like inside your +castle?" + +"It is not half so nice as I expected to find it," said the Princess, +popping her head out of the top window. "You see, there is no one to +play with; and even if your castle is the most beautiful castle in the +world, it is always dull when there is no one to play with, isn't it?" + +"I don't know," answered the stranger; "I have never had any one to +play with. What else is wrong with your castle?" + +"Well," continued the Princess, "it is all very well to have a castle +that is packed with happiness; but, when it is packed so tight that you +cannot get it out without some one to help you, it is not much good, is +it?" + +"I don't know," answered the stranger; "my happiness has never been +packed so tight as all that. Have you anything else to complain of?" + +"A great many things," said the Princess. "It is all that stupid +magician's fault. When I said, 'a small room to cry in,' I did n't +really mean a room to _cry_ in, did I? But every way I turn, there is +always the room to cry in, staring me in the face! I am sure there is +something seriously wrong with my castle in the air." + +"No doubt about it," said the traveller; "and it is clearly the +magician's fault." + +"When you came to live in your castle in the air," continued the +Princess, plaintively, "did you find that it was very different from +the one you had built?" + +The traveller in the dusty brown cloak burst out laughing. + +"I have no time to build castles in the air," he said. "I build real +houses for other people to live in, people who would, perhaps, have no +houses at all if I did not build them. That is more important than +building castles in the air for one's self." + +"What are your real houses like?" asked the Princess. + +"They are strong," answered the stranger, proudly. "All the four winds +joined together could not blow them down. No one has ever built such +strong houses as mine." + +"Are they beautiful, too?" asked the Princess. + +"I have no time to look after that," answered the stranger. "I build +more houses than any one else in the world; and still, there are people +who are waiting for houses to live in. I must build as fast as I can, +day after day, year after year." + +"Then why are you not building houses now?" asked the Princess. The +great builder looked sorrowful. + +"There is something wrong about my real houses, too," he confessed. +"The people who live in them are never quite contented; and I have come +away to think out a new plan by myself, so that the next houses I build +shall be the most wonderful houses in the world." + +The Princess leaned her chin on her hand, and looked quite thoughtful +for a moment or two. + +"May I come and help you to build real houses, for a change?" she said +presently. "I am dreadfully tired of building castles in the air that +do not turn out properly--though, of course, that was principally the +magician's fault! Still, if you were to show me the way, I might be +able to build something real that would turn out properly; and that +would be ever so much more amusing." + +"It is not at all amusing," said the traveller, shaking his head. "You +would soon grow tired of it; besides, you would have no Prince to play +with." + +"I don't think I want a Prince to play with," said the charming +Princess in the gold and silver frock. "He might turn out to be as +dull as my castle in the air, especially if the magician had anything +to do with it! I would much sooner come and help you to build real +houses." + +The traveller in the dusty brown cloak still shook his head. + +"Little ladies in gold and silver gowns can only build castles in the +air," he said. + +"Do the people who live in your houses never build castles in the air?" +asked the Princess. + +"I never thought of asking them," answered the great builder. "I have +been too much occupied in building their real houses." + +"Then let us go and ask them now," said the Princess; and she came down +from her castle in the air, and stepped once more on to the dusty road, +and held out her little white hand to the traveller. Her castle in the +air vanished like a puff of smoke the moment she stepped out of it. + +"What would be the use of that?" asked the traveller, smiling. He took +the little white hand, however, for no one could have refused that much +to such a very charming Princess. + +"Why," said the Princess in the gold and silver frock, "then we could +make their real houses just like their castles in the air; and only +think how packed with happiness they would be!" + +The traveller looked at her in amazement. It was certainly astonishing +that so great a builder as he should find out what was wrong with his +houses, from a Princess with a bright little crown on her head who had +never done anything but build castles in the air. Still, we must +remember that it all happened in Nonamia; and that accounts for a great +deal. + +"You are quite right," said the traveller; "you know far more about it +than I do. You shall come and help me to build real houses, and they +shall be the most wonderful houses that have ever been built." + +"All beautiful to look at, and packed with happiness inside!" cried the +dainty little Princess, clapping her hands for joy. "And we won't let +that stupid magician spoil our real houses, will we?" + +The magician was looking out of his window at nothing at all, when they +came past his castle, hand in hand. + +"We are going to build the most wonderful houses in the world," cried +the Princess,--"ever so much more wonderful than the stupid castle in +the air you gave _me_!" + +This was not very gracious of her, for, after all, the magician had +given her exactly what she had built for herself. However, as he had +already forgotten both of them and could not think of anything to say, +and as they were in too great a hurry to stay and help him, there is +nothing more to be said about the magician, except that he is still +living in his castle in the air and looking out of his window at +nothing at all, which is a right and proper occupation for a magician +who is absent-minded. As for the traveller and the charming Princess, +they spent the rest of their days in building the most wonderful houses +in the world for the people who had nowhere to live. And as for the +people who had nowhere to live, it was only natural that they should +all find their way to the country called Nonamia, where a little lady +in a gold and silver gown taught them to build a castle in the air, and +a great builder in a dusty brown cloak made it into a real house that +was packed with happiness. + +It is a little difficult to believe that this is all true; but then, it +must be remembered that it all happened in Nonamia, ever so long ago! + + + + +[Illustration: THE WYMPS SAY THAT QUEER BEGAN IT] + + + + +Why the Wymps Cried + +The wymps and the fairies have never been able to agree. Nobody quite +knows why, though the Fairy Queen, who is the wisest person in the +whole world, was once heard to say that jealousy had something to do +with it. The fairies say, however, that they would never dream of +being jealous of people who live at the back of the sun and do not know +manners; while the wymps say it would be absurd to be jealous of any +one who lives at the front of the sun and cannot take a joke. All the +same, the Fairy Queen is always right, so somebody must certainly be +jealous of somebody; and it is well known that if the wymps and the +fairies are invited to the same party, it is sure to end in a quarrel. +It is really a wonder that the Fairy Queen has not lost patience with +the wymps long ago; but people say that she has more affection for her +naughty little subjects at the back of the sun than any one would +imagine; and the Fairy Queen is so wonderful that it is quite possible +to believe this. + +Once, matters became so serious that there would have been a real war, +if the Queen had not called an assembly of her subjects on the +spot--which happened to be on the roof of a blacksmith's forge--and +asked them what the fuss was all about. + +"Please, your Majesty," said one fairy, half crying, "the wymps shut me +up at the back of the sun for fifteen days, and they gave me nothing to +eat, your Majesty; they said that if I couldn't take a joke I couldn't +take anything. And I should never _wish_ to take one of their jokes, +please your Majesty." + +"Do not trouble about that," said the Fairy Queen, gravely. "For my +part, I shall never expect you to take a joke from any one. Now, +Capricious, what have they done to you?" she added, as another fairy +with a round dimpled face came forward in a great hurry. + +"Please, your Majesty," began Capricious, trying to make a very +cheerful voice sound extremely doleful, "I found a wymp in the nursery, +after the children had gone to bed; and he was quite upset because the +Wymp King had made a joke and no one could see it; and he asked me to +go behind the sun with him, so that I might help him to see the joke +that the King had made. But when I got there, your Majesty, I said it +was much too dark to see anything and I was not at all surprised that +no one could see the King's jokes; and the King was so angry that he +ordered me to be poked through the sun again; and here I am, please +your Majesty." + +Her Majesty smiled approvingly. + +"You have made a joke worth two of the Wymp King's," she said; "and I +shall appoint you as a reward to go to Wympland with a message from me. +Do not trouble to thank me," she added, as the round dimpled face of +Capricious grew a little crestfallen, "for there is no time. The sun +is just going to rise, and the moment it is above the horizon you must +go straight through it once more and tell the King that I invite him to +breakfast in Fairyland. And now I must be off, for I have a smile to +paint on the face of every child in the world before it wakes." + +So the Fairy Queen flew away to paint a million or two of the most +beautiful smiles in the world; and the other fairies popped down +through the roof and did all the blacksmith's work for him and dropped +a nice dream on his pillow just to show they had been there; and +Capricious sat on the edge of the chimney-pot, until the sun came above +the horizon and it was time for her to take the Queen's message to +Wympland. + +The Wymp King knew better than to refuse the Queen's invitation to +breakfast; so he yawned three hundred and fifty-four times, rubbed his +eyes to keep them open--for it is a well-known thing that the Wymp King +is nearly always asleep--and started off in the direction of Fairyland. +The Queen was as pleased to see him as if he had never been naughty at +all; but, of course, she was far too much of a Queen to let him guess +that he was really there to be scolded. So she made him sit next to +her at breakfast, and gave him a cup of stinging-nettle tea to keep him +awake, and allowed him to make as many jokes as he pleased. The Wymp +King, in consequence, was extremely happy; and when the meal was over +and the Queen began to look stern, he had to think very hard indeed +before he remembered that he was nothing but a naughty little wymp +after all. + +"This state of things cannot go on," said the Fairy Queen. "What is +the use of my being a Queen if I am not to be obeyed?" + +"Your Majesty's chief use is to look like a Queen and to forgive your +disobedient subjects," said the Wymp King, who had taken so much +stinging-nettle tea that he was almost bristling with jokes. + +"Ah," sighed the Fairy Queen, looking sideways at the Wymp King, "it is +not at all easy to rule a country like mine." + +"It is very fortunate for the country to be ruled by a Queen like you," +said the Wymp King, who had not been so wide awake for a thousand years. + +"Do you think so? Then Wympland shall have a Queen for a change, and +you shall stay here instead and take a holiday," said her Majesty, +promptly. The Wymp King saw that he was outwitted, but he would not +have been a wymp if he had lost his temper about it; so he chuckled +good-humouredly, and pretended not to see that he had really been +cheated of his kingdom and was nothing but a prisoner in Fairyland. +However, the Fairy Queen gave him very little time even to keep his +temper, for she turned him into a tortoise and sent him to sleep under +a flower-pot in the garden; and then she called for Capricious to come +and help her to choose a Queen for Wympland. Capricious put her round, +dimpled face on one side, and thought deeply for thirteen seconds and a +half. + +"There is Molly, the shoemaker's daughter," said Capricious, when she +had finished thinking. "She is seven years old, and she is almost as +fond of sleeping as his Wympish Majesty. She would make an excellent +Queen for Wympland." + +"I remember Molly," said the Fairy Queen, thoughtfully. "She has ruled +the shoemaker and the shoemaker's wife and the shoemaker's customers +for seven years and a half; doubtless, she will have no difficulty in +ruling Wympland. So let no time be lost, Capricious, and see that +Molly wakes up from her morning sleep and finds herself on the Wymp +King's throne. She will look after the wymps for a time, and I shall +have some peace. Besides," added the Fairy Queen with her wise smile, +"if the wymps can only be made to cry for once in their lives, we shall +probably have no more difficulty with them." + +Capricious, who was just an ordinary little fairy and never thought +about anything much except singing and dancing, was quite unable to +understand the Queen's last remark. + +"Shall I tell Molly what she is to do when she gets there, please your +Majesty?" she asked in rather a puzzled tone. + +"Do?" said the Queen. "The rulers of Wympland never have to do +anything. If Molly will only keep her subjects amused, that is all +they will expect from her." + +That was how it was settled, and that was how Molly woke up from her +morning sleep and found herself on the Wymp King's throne, with four +little wymps standing in a row just in front of her. Molly stared at +the throne on which she was sitting, stared around at the dimly lighted +Land of the Wymps, and stared at the four little wymps who stood and +laughed at her. + +"Who are you?" she asked, opening her eyes as wide as she could. "Are +you live dolls, or fairies, or just other children for me to play with?" + +The four wymps laughed more than ever when she said this, and began to +sing a funny little song all together, just to explain who they were. +This was the song:-- + + "We are Skilful and Wilful and Captious and Queer, + There 's nothing to fright you and nothing to fear! + Four little wymps at the back of the sun, + Brimful of wympery, rubbish, and fun! + + "You 'll find we are wympish; but then, we 're not bores, + Though we own to a weakness for wiping off scores. + Ah! Skilful and Wilful and Captious and Queer + Are never far off when mischief is near! + + "Of Kings we 've had many, but never a Queen; + So bewymping a monarch we 've surely not seen; + And--Skilful and Wilful and Captious and Queer + Though we are, yet we know how to welcome you here! + + "You 'll surely bewymp all the wymps you come near + Besides Skilful and Wilful and Captious and Queer; + By the time you have gone and your wymping is done, + The world will have changed at the back of the sun." + + +"Are you really wymps?" exclaimed Molly, when the four little fellows +had finished explaining who they were; for, like every properly +educated child, Molly knew quite well that the wymps lived at the back +of the sun, although she had never been there before. + +"To be sure we are," answered Skilful and Wilful and Captious and +Queer. "And you are our new Queen." + +"Am I?" said Molly. "Oh, what fun!" + +"Of course it's fun," said Skilful. "Everything is fun up here." + +"Except the King's jokes," said Wilful. + +"And the Fairy Queen's commands," said Captious. + +"And the interference of the fairies," said Queer. + +"How do the fairies interfere?" asked Molly. + +"They come without being invited," said Skilful. + +"They don't play fair," said Wilful. + +"They always expect to win," said Captious. + +"They cry for nothing at all," said Queer. + +"I cry sometimes," observed Molly. + +"When?" asked all four, in a tone of alarm. + +"When I 'm hungry," said Molly, "or tired; or sometimes, when I tumble +down; or when I feel cross." + +"You should never cry," said Skilful, in a superior tone. "It takes up +so much time, and when you 've done crying you 've got exactly the same +thing to cry about as before. If you are hungry, don't cry but get +something to eat." + +"And if you 're tired, don't cry but go to sleep. Nothing could be +simpler," said Wilful. + +"And if you tumble down, don't cry but pick yourself up again," said +Captious. "If you know how to tumble down properly, it is the best fun +in the world. We spend most of our time up here in learning new ways +of tumbling down." + +"And if you are cross," added Queer; and then he stopped and looked +doubtfully at the other three. "What is she to do if she feels cross?" +he asked them. They shook their heads in reply. + +"Nobody is ever cross in Wympland," they explained to Molly. "People +who know how to make jokes, really _good_ jokes, soon learn how to take +them as well, and then there is nothing left to be cross about. You +don't feel cross now, do you?" + +Molly assured them that she did not feel in the least cross, and their +faces brightened again. + +"Perhaps, if you will tell us when you begin to feel cross we shall be +able to do something for you," they said; "but, whatever you do, you +must not cry in Wympland. It is only the fairies who do that, and they +don't know any better. As long as the sun has had a country at the +back of it, no wymp has ever been known to cry. Now, let us go and +find somebody to tease!" + +"I thought Queens could always do as they like," objected Molly, as +they took her two hands and made her jump down from the throne without +finding out whether she wished to come or not. + +"Oh, no," said Skilful and Wilful and Captious and Queer. "You make a +great mistake. The King always does as he is told in Wympland. So +come along with us and see us tease somebody." + +"I don't want to tease anybody," said Molly, decidedly. "I am going to +be a real Queen. Real Queens do just as they like; it is only Kings +who do as they are told. If you are not going to let me have my own +way I might just as well have stopped at home, instead of coming all +this way on purpose to be your Queen!" + +The four little wymps looked very perplexed. "May she do as she +likes?" they asked one another, and shook their four little heads +doubtfully. + +"She might order us about," said Skilful. + +"Or laugh at us," said Wilful. + +"Or expect us to obey her," said Captious. + +But Queer turned three somersaults in the air, just to show that he did +not care a bit if they did not agree with him; and then he bowed to +Molly almost as gracefully as a fairy might have done at the front of +the sun. + +"She is a real Queen," he said; "and real Queens must be obeyed." + +And when Molly declared that she should probably cry if they did not +immediately allow her to have her own way, the other three wymps were +obliged to follow Queer's example. + +"You are a real Queen, and you may do as you like," they said in a +resigned tone; and Molly clapped her hands with delight. + +"Then please fetch me some plum-cake, and a large ice, and lots of +barley sugar; I am so hungry," she said. Immediately, everything she +asked for was lying before her on the King's throne, and they all sat +down and enjoyed such a dinner as only a wymp or a real Queen would +know how to appreciate. When they had finished, Molly said she should +like to see the rest of Wympland, for nobody at the front of the sun +had ever been able to tell her anything about it; so they led her all +over it, which did not take them longer than the rest of the afternoon, +for the world at the back of the sun is smaller than some people think, +and that is a very good thing, for after all it is better to live on +the right side of the sun if one is not a wymp. + +"It is a very flat country," said the little Queen, as she trotted +along with two wymps on each side of her. + +"It has to be flat," explained Skilful. "If it were tilted ever so +little we should roll into the sun and out at the other side, don't you +see; and no true wymp ever wants to do that." + +"It is rather dark, too," continued the little Queen. + +"Of course," said Wilful, proudly. "It is always the same here. Now, +when you get to the front of the sun you never know whether it is going +to be light or dark. There are no surprises of that sort at the back +of the sun." + +"And where," asked Molly, "is the royal palace?" + +"Wherever you like," answered Captious in an obliging tone. "Would you +like it here, or will you have it a little nearer the sun? Of course +it is warmer, near the sun, but you will find it much noisier because +the stars are so fond of chattering." + +"I should like it here, please," said Molly, who did not want to wait +another minute for her palace. Hardly were her words spoken than a +perfectly charming little palace appeared in front of her, just large +enough for such a very small Queen to feel happy in. It was all made +of rainbows and starshine and dewdrops; every thing that is bright and +sweet-looking had helped to make her palace, and from the very middle +of it rose a tall, silvery bell-tower, from which peals of laughter +were ringing merrily. + +"Oh, oh! how beautiful!" exclaimed Molly. "But how is it that my +palace is so bright while Wympland is so dull?" + +"Ah," said Queer, softly; "we wished for the palace, you see, and the +things we wish for are never dull." + +"It is a dream-palace," added Wilful; "and dreams are never dull +either." + +"I hope it will not go away as my dreams do when I wake up in the +morning," said Molly. + +"Oh, no," they assured her. "It cannot disappear until we wish it to +go away again; and that we shall never do as long as it induces you to +stay with us." + +"Do you always wish for what you want?" asked Molly. + +"Dear me, yes," said Captious. "What is the use of having a lot of +things lying about that you don't want? There is only just enough room +in Wympland for the things we do want, so we wish for them as we want +them, and that is much more convenient. You should try it." + +"Everything you see here," added Skilful, "has been wished for, some +time or another. Neither Wympland, nor the wymps, nor our bewymping +little Queen would be here at all if somebody had not wished for them." + +"And if we were all to wish hard at the same moment," said Wilful, "not +one of us would be left standing here, nor would there be any country +at all at the back of the sun." + +"But we shall never wish that, now that we have a real Queen of our +own," said Queer. + +Then, for the first time, Molly noticed that this strange little +country at the back of the sun had no people in it; for, ever since she +had waked up on the King's throne, she had seen no one except Skilful +and Wilful and Captious and Queer. + +"Where are all the other wymps?" she cried. + +"Ah," they said, mysteriously; "most people don't know it, but the +wymps go through the sun every morning and spend the day in making fun +for the people on the other side. That is how the people down in the +world are taught to laugh instead of to cry. There would be no +laughter at all at the front of the sun if it were not for the wymps." + +"How strange!" said Molly. "I always thought it was wrong to make fun +of people." + +"So it is," said Queer; "nobody but a bad wymp would do such a thing. +A true wymp makes fun _for_ people, and that is a very different thing." + +"A _very_ different thing," echoed the other three. "We only make fun +of people who have never learnt how to laugh, and very difficult it is +to make them into fun at all. It's very poor fun when it is made, +too,--most of it," they added, sighing. + +Molly was just going to ask them how they managed to make people into +fun at all, when a number of sounds like pistol-shots suddenly came +from the direction of the sun, and the four wymps grew wildly excited +and seized her by the hands and began to race over the ground with her +as fast as they could. + +"The wymps have come home!" they gasped breathlessly. "If we make all +the haste we can, we shall be there in time to see them arrive." + +It seemed to Molly that to run after her subjects was a curious thing +for a real Queen to do. However, she was far too much out of breath to +say anything, and the next moment they had reached the back of the sun; +and there were dozens of little wymps, all tumbling through it, one on +the top of the other, until they made a large heap of themselves at the +feet of their new little Queen. + +"They are bidding you welcome," whispered Queer, as the heap remained +motionless at Molly's feet; and, except for the fact that a good many +shouts of laughter were coming from it, no one would have thought it +was made of wymps at all. + +"Oh, please get up," implored their little Queen. "It is very nice of +you to be so glad to see me, but I am sure it must be very +uncomfortable to lie about on the floor like that." + +Immediately, the heap dissolved itself into wymps again; and they +crowded round Molly, tumbling up against her so clumsily and chattering +and laughing so noisily, that she thought it was quite time to remind +them that she was a real Queen. + +"Do you think you could make a little less noise?" she begged them. "I +don't like noise at all. If you will only try to speak one at a time, +I may be able to answer everybody." + +The wymps were so amazed to hear that she did not like noise that they +became silent for a whole minute in order to think about it. "You +see," said Queer, apologetically, "we have never had a Queen before, so +we are not quite sure what she does like. Kings always like plenty of +noise; at least, it does not seem to wake them up, and that is the +great thing." + +"Yes, that is it!" cried all the little wymps together. "We have never +had a Queen before, so we don't quite know how to treat her." + +"Supposing," continued Queer, "that you were to tell us the kind of +things that a real Queen would like us to do?" + +"Yes, yes!" shouted all the other wymps, gleefully. "Tell us what a +real Queen would like us to do!" + +So Molly clambered up on the King's throne, and tried to look as much +like a Queen as a very little girl, in a very short frock and a very +pink pinafore, knows how to look; and the wymps stood in front of her, +closely packed together; and she began to tell them some of the things +that a real Queen would like them to do. + +"First of all," said Molly, "a real Queen does n't like her toes +trodden on, and her pinafore crumpled, and her hair pulled. She does +n't like being screamed at, either; and she never allows herself to be +ordered about by any one. She likes to order other people about +instead, and she likes the other people to be very pleased when she +orders them about, and not to go slowly and look disagreeable and +grumble. She likes a new frock every Sunday, and a birthday every +month; and she always drinks milk for supper. It is supper time now," +added the little Queen, beginning to yawn. + +All the wymps at once hurled themselves helter-skelter through the sun +again, in search of milk for their new Queen's supper. But Queer ran +faster than any of them, and he took the very milk that Molly's own +mother had just milked into the pail for herself; and the strangest +thing of all was that, although the pail became empty before her eyes +and she had to go without any supper, Molly's mother was quite happy +after that and did not worry any more about her little girl who had so +strangely disappeared in the morning. That shows what the wymps can do +when they forget to be wympish. And Molly drank her milk and went to +sleep in her dream-palace, and was the happiest little Queen on either +side of the sun; and the wymps--well, it is impossible to describe what +the wymps felt like. + +Molly was Queen of Wympland for a great many days, and there had never +reigned such peace at the back of the sun, nor in the whole world of +Fairyland either. It was so remarkable that the Fairy Queen sent for +Capricious, one day, and asked her why nobody had anything to grumble +about. Any one might have thought from the Fairy Queen's tone that she +was not particularly pleased at so much contentment, but of course that +could not possibly be the case. + +"Please, your Majesty," said Capricious, who had been waiting anxiously +to be asked this very question for quite a long time, "it is because +the wymps are so much occupied in looking after their new Queen that +they have no time to play tricks on us." + +"Ah," said her Majesty, smiling wisely, "does she seem happy at the +back of the sun?" + +"Everybody is happy at the back of the sun, please your Majesty," said +Capricious. "They play games all day long to amuse their new Queen, +and they never quarrel except for the right to do things for her little +Majesty. If she stays there much longer it will soon be impossible to +distinguish a wymp from a fairy!" + +"It is time she went home again," said the Fairy Queen, smiling wisely +for the second time. "How do the shoemaker and his wife get on without +her?" + +"Their house is so quiet that the shoemaker has never made better +shoes," answered Capricious. "The shoemaker's wife, though, can do +nothing but sit out in the sunshine and wait, for she cannot bear the +silence indoors. Even wympcraft cannot make her forget everything, +your Majesty." + +"Molly must certainly go home again," said the Fairy Queen; "and she +must go to-morrow morning." + +Capricious sighed dismally. + +"Must she really go, your Majesty?" she ventured to say; "and will the +wymps be free again to plague us with their tiresome wympish jokes?" + +The Fairy Queen smiled wisely for the third time. + +"Wait until to-morrow morning," she said. "You may have as good a joke +against the wymps as they have ever had against you." + +That night, Molly had a dream straight from Fairyland which reminded +her that, although she had a whole palace of her own and quantities of +little subjects to do her bidding, she was really the daughter of the +shoemaker on the other side of the sun. So, when Skilful and Wilful +and Captious and Queer came to play with her in the morning, she told +them she could not be their Queen any longer, as it was time for her to +go back to the front of the sun. The four little fellows looked more +dismal than a wymp had ever been known to look before, and so did all +the wymps in Wympland as soon as they heard that their bewymping Queen +was going away from them. + +"Can we do nothing to make you stop with us?" they asked her. "Have we +been too rough with you, after all? You must forgive us if we have, +for we are not accustomed to Queens, at the back of the sun. If we try +to be less noisy, will you not stay with us a little longer?" + +"Dear little wymps," cried Molly; "you never tread on my toes now, nor +crumple my pinafore, nor pull my hair. I do not want to go away from +you, but it is time for me to go back to the other side of the sun. +Will you please show me how to get there, dear little wymps?" + +When they saw that she was quite determined to go, they led her very +sadly to the back of the sun; and nobody made a single joke on the way, +and there was not a smile to be seen in the whole of that sad little +procession. There had never been so little laughter and so much +dolefulness in the Land of the Wymps. + +"How am I to get through that?" asked Molly, rubbing the tears out of +her eyes and looking up at the back of the big round sun; "and shall I +tumble all the way down when I get to the other side?" + +"It is quite easy," explained Skilful. "You have only to shut your +eyes and jump through it, and the sunbeams will catch you on the other +side; and you can slide down the one that shines into the shoemaker's +garden, where your mother sits watching for you." + +Then Molly rubbed her eyes again, for there were still a great many +tears in them, and the more she rubbed them away the faster they came +again, until she was really afraid the wymps would see that she was +crying; and that would never do, for she felt quite sure that a real +Queen should never cry. So she kissed her hand to her sad little +subjects and promised to come back again some day; and then she shut +her eyes tight and jumped through the big round sun and slid down the +sunbeam that shone into the shoemaker's garden. And as she sped down +the shining, slippery sunbeam, she could hear Skilful and Wilful and +Captious and Queer in the distance, singing their funny little song +about her:-- + + "You have surely bewymped all the wymps you came near, + Besides Skilful and Wilful and Captious and Queer! + And now that you 've gone and your wymping is done, + The world has grown sad at the back of the sun." + +Molly never knew what happened when they finished singing; but the +fairies knew, because they were hiding all round the edge of the sun at +the time. And it was the most remarkable thing that had ever happened +in Wympland. + +The wymps say that Queer began it; and this is extremely likely, for +Queer was always a little different from the other wymps. Anyhow, they +very soon followed his example; and so it was that all the wymps at the +back of the sun sat down on the ground and cried, because their +bewymping little Queen was no longer with them. And all the fairies +who were hiding popped up their heads and peered over the edge of the +sun and stared in amazement at what was going on in Wympland. + +So the Fairy Queen was right, as she always is, and the wymps were made +to cry for once in their lives; and the fairies have as good a joke +against the wymps as the wymps ever had against the fairies. Perhaps +that is why the wymps play so few tricks on the fairies, now; but the +Fairy Queen only smiles when people say that, so she probably knows +better. + + + + +[Illustration: SUNNY WAS SO ASTONISHED THAT SHE STOPPED CRYING AT ONCE] + + + + +The Story of Honey and Sunny + +There was once a wonderful country in which everything was beautiful. +All the trees, and the flowers, and the birds, and the animals were +just as beautiful as could be imagined; and the shops, and the houses, +and the palaces were the same. Of course all the little girls and boys +were beautiful, too; but that is the same everywhere. Now, whether it +was because of the beauty of his kingdom, or whether it was merely on +account of his royal birth, it is impossible to say, but the King was +so extremely nervous that his life was no pleasure to him. + +"I cannot bear anything noisy," he said. "Noise is so very alarming." +So when the baby Princess cried, he sent her away to another King's +country, to be brought up in a village nobody had ever heard of, so +that her royal father should not be disturbed. And when he heard that +the Queen, his wife, had gone after her, he hardly raised his royal +eyebrows. "She laughed too much," he observed, thoughtfully. + +The palace grew quieter day by day. The ladies in waiting were +forbidden to wear high heels because they made such a clatter on the +marble floors; so everybody knew for the first time how short everybody +else was. Every courtier whose boots creaked was instantly banished, +and if he had a cough into the bargain he was beheaded as well; but the +climate was so delightful that this very rarely happened. In time, +everybody at court took to speaking in a whisper, in order to spare the +King's nerves; and it even became the fashion to talk as little as +possible. The King was immensely pleased at this. "Anybody can talk," +he said; "but it is a sign of great refinement to be silent." After +that, even the ladies in waiting were sometimes silent for quite half +an hour. It is true that the King talked whenever he felt inclined, +but that, of course, was necessary. + +The silence of the court soon spread over the country. Laws were made +to forbid the people to keep chickens, or pigs, or cows, or anything +that was noisy; and the children were ordered, by royal proclamation, +never to laugh, and never to cry, and never to quarrel, so that when +the King rode out from his palace not a sound should meet his ears. +But this was not all; for the birds were so frightened by the stillness +of everything that they stopped singing altogether, and the leaves on +the trees ceased to rustle when the wind blew; and even the frogs and +the toads were startled at the hoarseness of their own voices and did +not croak any more, which was the most remarkable thing that ever +happened, for it takes a very great deal to persuade a frog or a toad +that his voice is not charming. The only sound that broke the silence +was the occasional humming of bees, for the King still allowed the +people to keep bees if they liked. "Bees are not noisy," he said. +"They do not grunt, or bark, or croak. I can bear to listen to the +humming of bees." Even the bees did not hum so much as bees generally +do; for the sun soon found that nobody laughed when he was shining his +very best, so he went behind a cloud in a temper and stayed there for +years and years and years; and the bees could not do without sunshine, +even if the King could. So the country grew less beautiful and more +gloomy every year. + +But the village without a name in the other King's country, where the +little Princess was being brought up, was a very different kind of +place. It was full of happy people, who made as much noise as they +pleased, and laughed when they were glad, and cried when they were sad, +and never bothered about anything at all. And the chickens ran in and +out of the cottages with the children, and the birds sang all the year +round, and the sun had never been known to stop shining for a single +minute. It was the jolliest country imaginable, for nobody interfered +with anybody else, and the King never made any laws at all, and the +only punishment that existed was for grumbling. It is true that there +was hardly any conversation, for everybody talked at once and nobody +heard what anybody else said; but as it was not often worth hearing, +that did not matter in the least. Everybody was happy and jolly, and +that was the great thing. + +Little Sunny the Princess grew up without knowing that she was a +Princess at all; and nobody else knew that she was a Princess either; +and even the Queen had almost forgotten that she was a King's wife. +That was nobody's concern though; and they lived in the tiniest cottage +of all, and Sunny romped with every girl and boy in the place and was +loved by them all. They had called her Sunny because she could look +straight at the sun without blinking, which was more than the boldest +of them could do; and it was such a good name for her that she was +never called anything else. Besides, nobody knew her real name, and as +it is much too long to be mentioned here, and as the Queen had +forgotten it long ago, it really is of no consequence at all. + +One fine day, Sunny sat up in the chocolate tree, listening to one of +the stories that Honey the gardener's son was so fond of telling her; +and Honey the gardener's son lay on the grass below, and tried to catch +the chocolate drops with which she was pelting him. + +"Why are all your stories so much alike, Honey?" asked Sunny the +Princess. "Why does the Prince always go out into the world to find a +Princess? Why should n't the Princess go and find the Prince, for a +change? I wish I was a Princess; I would start to-morrow. What fun!" + +She laughed her very happiest laugh and found an extra large chocolate +drop and threw it into his mouth. Honey laughed as well as any one +could laugh with a chocolate drop in his mouth, and tried to think of +an answer to her question. Honey was not his real name either, but it +was the one they had given him because he knew the language of the +bees, as, indeed, every true son of a gardener should. + +"Perhaps the stories are wrong," he said. "I only tell them to you as +I have them from the bees. Or perhaps none of those particular +Princesses ever wanted to go out into the world to find anybody." + +"Or perhaps," added Sunny, "they were just found before they had time +to look for a Prince themselves. Do you think that was it? Anyhow, I +don't want to wait for a Prince, for Princes never come this way at +all; so I am going out into the world to seek my own fortune, and I +shall start this very moment!" + +She jumped down from the chocolate tree as she spoke, and danced round +Honey, clapping her hands with excitement. Honey was not surprised, +for nobody was ever surprised at anything in that country, but he was +just a little bit sad. + +"And I shall ask the first Prince I meet if he will come back with me," +continued Sunny; "just as the Princes always ask the Princesses in the +stories. He won't know I am not a Princess, will he? And you won't +tell him, will you, Honey dear?" + +"I shall not be there," said Honey the gardener's son. "I don't think +I want to look for a Princess; and I certainly cannot leave my garden." + +"Oh," said Sunny, and she was almost grave for an instant. "But I will +come back some day, when I have found my Prince, and then you shall be +my gardener," she went on consolingly. "And you don't mind my going +without you, do you, Honey dear?" + +"The Princes in the stories always went alone," answered Honey. + +So that was how Sunny the Princess went out into the world, without +knowing that she was a Princess. And of course everybody in the +village missed her; but the Queen, her mother, and Honey, the +gardener's son, missed her most of all. Before she went, however, +Honey taught her a song which she was to sing if she ever found herself +in trouble; and this was the song:-- + + "Friends of Honey, + Come to Sunny; + Whizzing, whirring, + Stillness stirring, + Sunlight blurring; + Friends of Honey, + Fly to Sunny!" + +and this she learned by heart before she started. + +Now, she travelled a great many days without meeting with any +adventures at all. It was such a delightful country that everybody was +pleased to see her, and she never had any difficulty in getting enough +to eat, for she had only to smile and that was all the payment that +anybody wanted. But one day, as she was walking through a wood, a +great change suddenly came over everything. Every sound was hushed, +and the birds stopped singing, and the wind stopped playing with the +leaves; there was not a rustle or a movement anywhere, and the sun had +gone behind a cloud. In the whole of her short life the little +Princess had never seen the sun go behind a cloud, and she felt +extremely inclined to cry. The further she went, the darker and +gloomier it grew, and at last she could not bear it another minute; so +down she sat by the side of the road and wept heartily. + +"Hullo! you must stop that noise or else you will be banished," said a +voice, not very far on. Sunny was so astonished that she stopped +crying at once and looked up to see a little old man with a white beard +staring at her. He was a very sad-looking little man, and his mouth +was drawn down at the corners as though he had been on the point of +crying all his life and had never quite broken down. + +"Why must I stop?" asked Sunny. "If you feel unhappy you _must_ cry, +must n't you?" + +"Dear me, no," said the sad little man, in a tone of deep gloom. "I am +always unhappy, but I never cry. The whole country is unhappy, but +nobody is allowed to cry. If you cry, you must go away." + +"What a funny country!" cried Sunny, and she at once began to laugh at +the absurdity of it. + +"Don't do that," said the little man, in a tone of still greater alarm. +"If you go on making any fresh noises, you will get beheaded. Why +can't you be quiet? You can do anything you like, as long as you do it +quietly." + +"May n't I laugh?" exclaimed Sunny. "What is the use of feeling happy +if you may n't laugh?" + +"It is n't any use," said the sad little man. "Nobody ever is happy in +this country. Nobody ever has been happy since the King was bewitched +and the sun went away in a temper, and that was sixteen years ago. +Nobody ever will be happy again, unless the spell is broken; and the +spell cannot be broken until a Princess of the royal blood comes this +way, without knowing that she is a Princess." + +"How absurd!" said Sunny. "As if a Princess could be a Princess +without knowing she is a Princess!" + +"Why not?" asked the sad little man, crossly. He had lived alone in +the dark, silent wood for such a long time that he began to find the +conversation tiring. + +"Oh, because there are bands and flags and balls and banquets and +cheers and Princes and lots of fun, wherever there is a Princess," +replied Sunny. + +The sad little man looked more sad than before. + +"Then the spell will never be broken," he said, miserably; "because all +that noise would be stopped at once. If you have done talking you had +better go, or else we shall both be banished; and I advise you to take +off those wooden shoes of yours, unless you want to be clapped into +prison. But, first of all, tell me if you can look straight at the sun +without blinking." + +He always asked that of every little girl who came his way, in case she +should happen to be a Princess; for he was really a very wise little +man in spite of his sadness, and he knew that only eagles, and +Princesses who did not know they were Princesses, could look straight +at the sun without blinking. And he was so tired of feeling sad +without being allowed to cry, that he longed to have the spell removed +from the country, so that he need not keep back his tears any longer. + +"Why, of course I can, if there is a sun," laughed Sunny. And to her +astonishment the sad little man dropped straight on the ground, and put +his fists in his eyes, and began to cry at the very top of his voice, +just like any child in any nursery. + +"Whatever is the matter?" exclaimed Sunny. + +"Matter?" shouted the little man, who was shaken with sobs from head to +foot. "I was never so happy in my life! I have been longing to cry +for sixteen years." + +There had certainly not been so much noise in that wood for sixteen +years. For no sooner did the old man begin to weep, than the trees +began to rustle, and the birds began to sing, and the frogs began to +croak; and over it all came a faint glimmering of white light, as +though the sun were beginning to stretch himself behind the cloud. + +"What does it all mean?" demanded Sunny. + +"Go on to the palace and see," sobbed the sad little man, and he +pointed out the way to her between his tears. And Sunny set off +running in her wooden shoes as fast as she could go, and there never +was such a clatter as she made when she reached the town and ran +straight through the gates and all along the streets; and on either +side of her the people fell down in heaps, from sheer amazement at +hearing such a noise after sixteen years of silence. So nobody tried +to stop her; and she ran faster and faster and faster, and the light +grew brighter and brighter and brighter, till at last she stood in the +courtyard of the King's palace. There she saw beautiful ladies in +magnificent court dresses creeping about on their bare feet, and +handsome courtiers in elegant costumes walking on tiptoe in carpet +slippers; and there was the Captain of the King's guard drilling the +soldiers in whispers, and there were the soldiers pretending to fire +with guns that had no gunpowder in them; and there was the head +coachman making faces at the stable boy because he could not shout at +him, and there was the stable boy standing on his head because he was +not allowed to whistle. And into the middle of it all came the clatter +of Sunny's wooden shoes, as she ran across the courtyard, and up the +steps, and into the palace; and down dropped the ladies in waiting in +graceful groups, and down dropped the courtiers just anyhow; and all +the soldiers fell down in neat little rows, and the Captain of the +King's guard sat down and looked at them; and the head coachman shouted +as he had wanted to shout at all his stable boys for the last sixteen +years, and the stable boy waved his cap and cried "Hurrah!" And Sunny +went clattering along the great hall, past the page boys who were +playing marbles with india-rubber marbles, and past the kitchen where +the fires burned without crackling and the kettles never boiled over, +and up the wide marble staircase, and along all the passages, until the +sound of her coming even reached the King's ears. + +Now the King sat on his throne with cotton wool stuffed in his ears, in +case there should by accident be the least sound in the palace. But, +in spite of that, he heard the clatter of Sunny's shoes coming closer +and closer, and he began to feel terribly nervous lest there really was +going to be a noise at last. + +"What is that noise? Take it away and behead it at once!" he said to +the Prime Minister, in his most distinct whisper. But the noise +outside was now so great that the Prime Minister could not hear a word; +and the next moment the door was flung open, and Sunny the Princess ran +into the room. And the King looked so funny as he tried to make the +Prime Minister hear his whispers, and the Prime Minister looked so +funny as he tried to hear the King's whispers, that Sunny was obliged +to laugh; and when she had once begun she found she could not stop, so +she laughed and laughed and laughed; and when the poor, nervous old +King turned again to the Prime Minister to tell him to behead some one +at once, he found that the Prime Minister was laughing too; and +immediately all the pages in the hall, and the courtiers in the +courtyard, and the cooks in the kitchen, and the townspeople in the +streets, and the children in the nurseries, were all laughing as +heartily as they could. And when the sun heard all this laughter, he +finished making up his mind immediately, and came out from behind the +cloud and shone his very best once more. So there was the sunshine +again, and there was everybody laughing, except the King. + +Now, when the King found that no one was paying any attention to his +royal whispers, he began to grow angry, and without thinking any more +about it he shouted at the very top of his royal voice. And this was +so remarkable, after sixteen years of whispering, that the laughter was +instantly hushed; and even Sunny the Princess became grave, because she +wanted to see what was going to happen next. + +"Who are you?" demanded the King, pointing at her with his sceptre. + +"I am Sunny, of course," she said, stepping up to the throne in quite a +friendly manner. All the courtiers looked at one another and nodded. + +"She is Sunny, of course," they said, just as though there could be no +doubt about it whatever. + +"She is the little Princess your daughter," said a fresh voice from the +doorway. And there stood the Queen, who had not been able to stay by +herself any longer and had just come after Sunny as fast as she could. +When the King saw her, he quite forgot that she used to laugh too much, +and he came down from his throne in a terrific hurry and he kissed her +several times before the whole court; and Sunny kissed them both there +and then; and all the ladies in waiting in the room kissed all the +pages that were to be seen; and the courtiers stood in rows along the +wall and never got kissed at all. + +So that was how Sunny found out she was a Princess; and there were +bands and flags and balls and banquets and cheers and Princes and lots +of fun. For that evening the King gave a magnificent ball, to +celebrate the return of his daughter Sunny; and all the Princes in the +kingdom were invited to it. + +"Now," said the Queen, as she carefully put on Sunny's beautiful new +crown, "you will be able to find your Prince, as you said you would." + +But Sunny shook her head and wondered why she felt so sad when +everything seemed to be going so well; and when the Queen had gone +downstairs to look after the supper, she went to the open window and +looked out into the garden. As she did so, there came a faint buzzing +and humming close at hand, and three beautiful brown bees flew down and +settled on her round white arm. And Sunny gave a cry of joy and knew +all at once why she had been feeling so lonely; and she began to sing +the song Honey the gardener's son had taught her:-- + + "Friends of Honey + Come to Sunny; + Whizzing, whirring, + Stillness stirring, + Sunlight blurring; + Friends of Honey, + Fly to Sunny!" + + +She had not nearly finished singing it before there came a distant +murmur in the still, warm air, and the murmur grew louder and louder +until it would almost have deafened any one if there had been any one +there to deafen. But the people in the palace were so occupied in +dressing for the ball that a thunderstorm would not have made any +difference to them; and as for Sunny, the sound only reminded her of +the village without a name, where she had been so happy with Honey. So +she leaned out of the window as far as she could, and waited until she +saw a dense cloud coming gradually towards her, so large that it +covered the whole of the setting sun. When it reached the palace it +hung just above it, and she could see quite plainly that it was made of +millions and millions of bees. Then the three bees which had dropped +on her round white arm floated up into the air and flew round her head +three times and went away to join the cloud of bees overhead. Sunny +knew then that they were going to do what she wanted; and she clapped +her hands and laughed, as the humming and buzzing began all over again, +and the cloud moved away as quickly as it had come. "Hurry, hurry, +dear little bees!" she cried from the palace window; and the next +moment there was not a bee left in the whole kingdom, for they had all +gone to the village without a name, in the other King's country. + +Everybody wondered why the Princess was so disdainful to all the +Princes who danced with her, that night. But nobody wondered any more +when Honey the gardener's son arrived; and this really happened, only +three days later. And he came, all in his gardener's clothes; and he +walked straight into the palace, just as Sunny had done; and she met +him in the great hall, where the King and the Queen and the whole court +were having a reception to receive one another. And they both shouted +with happiness and ran straight into each other's arms; and they kissed +and kissed and kissed, and then they fell to talking as fast as they +could; and they both talked at once for three quarters of an hour, +before either of them heard a word. Then they sat down on the steps of +the King's throne, just because it happened to be there, and Sunny told +him everything that had happened to her. Nobody interfered, not even +the Prime Minister, for Sunny had done so many curious things since her +arrival that one more or less made very little difference. + +"It is very dull being a Princess," said Sunny. "And I don't like +palaces much, after all; they are such stuffy places! The people who +live in them are rather stuffy, too. And there is n't a chocolate tree +in the whole of the garden; did you ever know such a stupid garden? +Oh, I am so glad you have come, Honey dear!" + +"Have you found your Prince?" was all that Honey said. + +"Princes are not a bit amusing," said Sunny. "There were fifty-two +Princes at the ball, the other night, but I did n't like any of them. +I am dreadfully tired of being a Princess. It is ever so much nicer in +the village, under the chocolate tree." + +"Of course it is," said Honey. "We 'll go back, shall we?" And +nothing the King could say would make them see any other side to the +question. Indeed, as the Queen pointed out to him, if he had not +allowed the people to keep so many bees it might never have happened at +all. So the end of it was, that the Queen stayed with the King; and +Honey and Sunny were married that very same day and went back to live +in the village without a name. And there they built a very small house +in a very big garden, and they planted it with rows of chocolate trees, +and rows of acid-drop bushes, and lots of almond rockeries; and the +fairies came and filled it with flowers from Fairyland that had no +names at all, but were the most beautiful flowers that any one has ever +seen, for they never faded or died but just changed into something else +when they were tired of being the same flower. + +So no wonder that Honey and Sunny were happy for ever and ever! + + + + +[Illustration: "COME WITH ME, POET," SAID THE LITTLE PRINCESS] + + + + +The Little Princess and the Poet + +There was once a Poet whom nobody wanted. Wherever he went, he was +always in the way; and the reason for this was his inability to do +anything useful. All the people in all the countries through which he +passed seemed to be occupied in making something,--either war, or +noise, or money, or confusion; but the Poet could make nothing except +love, and that, of course, was of no use at all. Even the women, who +might otherwise have welcomed him, could not endure the ugliness of his +features; and, indeed, it would have been difficult to find a face with +less beauty in it, for he looked as if all the cares and the annoyances +of the world had been imprinted on his countenance and left it seared +with lines. So the poor, ugly Poet went from place to place, singing +poems to which nobody listened, and offering sympathy to people who +could not even understand his language. + +One day he came to a city he had never visited before; and, as he +always did, he went straight to the part where the poorer people lived, +for it was all about them that he wrote the poetry to which nobody +listened. But, as usual, the poor people were so full of their +troubles that they could not even understand him. + +"What is the use of telling us we are unhappy?" they grumbled. "We +know that already, and it does not interest us a bit. Can you not do +something for us?" + +The Poet only shook his head. + +"If I did," he replied, "I should probably do it very badly. The world +is full of people who are always doing things; the only mistake they +make is in generally doing them wrong. But I am here to persuade them +to do the right things for a change, so that you may have your chance +of happiness as well as they." + +"Oh, we shall never be happy," the people said. "If that is all you +have to say, you had better leave us to our unhappiness and go up to +the King's palace. For the little Princess has been blind from her +birth, and her great delight is to listen to poetry, so the palace is +full of poets. But none of them ever come down here, so we do not know +what they are like." + +The Poet was overjoyed at hearing that at last he was in a country +where he was wanted; and he set off for the palace immediately. + +"Who are you, and what do you want?" demanded the royal sentinels, when +he presented himself at the palace gates. + +"I am a Poet," he replied. "And I have come to see the Princess, +because she is fond of poets." + +"We have never seen a poet like you," said the sentinels, doubtfully. +"All the poets in the palace have smooth, smiling faces, and fine +clothes, and white hands. Her Royal Highness is not accustomed to +receiving any one so untidy as yourself." + +The Poet looked down at his weather-beaten clothes and his toil-worn +hands; and he stared at the reflection of his wrinkled, furrowed face +in the moat that surrounded the palace; and he sighed in a disappointed +manner. + +"I am a Poet," he repeated. "How can a man be a poet if his face is +smooth and his hands are white? No man can be a poet if he has not +toiled and suffered and wandered over the earth, for the sake of the +people who are in it." + +Just then he heard a woman's voice speaking from the other side of the +gates; and looking through them, he saw a beautiful, pale Princess, +standing there all by herself, with a look of interest on her face. + +"It is the little blind Princess," thought the Poet, and he bowed +straight to the ground though he knew quite well that she could not see +him. The sentinels saluted, too, for they were so accustomed to +saluting people who never saw them at all that the blindness of the +little Princess made no difference to them. + +"Tell me," said the Princess, eagerly, "the name of the man with the +wonderful voice, who is saying all those beautiful, true things." + +"Please your Highness," said the sentinels, "he _says_ he is a Poet." + +"Ah," cried the little Princess, joyfully, "at last you have come; I +have been waiting for you all my life! At last I have found a real +Poet, and the Queen-mother will see now that all those people in there, +who say the same things over and over again in their small, thin +voices, are not poets at all. Come in, Poet; why do you stay so long +outside?" + +So the drawbridge was let down, and the sentinels saw what a mistake +they had made and did their best to pretend that they had not made it +at all; and for the first time in his life the Poet felt that he was +not in anybody's way. + +"Come with me, Poet," said the little Princess, holding out her small +white hand to him. "If you will take my hand, I shall feel quite sure +you are there." + +So the little blind Princess and the Poet went into the palace, hand in +hand. + +"I have found a Poet," she announced to the whole court, just as it was +sitting down to luncheon. + +"What! Another?" groaned the King from the top of the table. "I +should have thought five-and-forty were quite enough, considering the +demand." + +"This is a _real_ Poet," continued the little Princess, still holding +the Poet's hand. "I knew him by his wonderful voice. I am so glad he +has come; and now, we can send away all the others, who are not poets +at all." + +Now, this was a little awkward, for the five-and-forty poets were all +present; and being mostly the younger sons of kings, who had only taken +up poetry as an accomplishment, they were also suitors for the +Princess's hand, which made it more awkward still. So the Queen +coughed uncomfortably, and all the ladies in waiting blushed +uncomfortably, and the five-and-forty poets naturally looked +uncomfortable into the bargain. But the little Princess, who could see +nothing and never had been able to see anything, neither blushed nor +felt uncomfortable. + +"Will some one give place to the Poet?" she asked with a smile. + +The Queen, who was generally full of resources, felt that it was time +to interfere. + +"Do not listen to Her Royal Highness," she said, soothingly, to the +five-and-forty poets. "She is so terribly truthful that she does not +know what she is saying. I have tried in vain to break her of it." + +"Don't know where she gets it from," growled the old King, who had a +great dislike to scenes at meal times. + +The five-and-forty poets recovered their composure, when they heard +that the Princess was rather to be pitied than blamed; and the Queen +was able to turn to the cause of the disturbance. + +"Will you be kind enough to go?" she said to the Poet. "My daughter +did not know who you were because, unfortunately, she cannot see. She +actually mistook you for a poet!" + +"It is the first time," said the Poet, "that any one has made the +mistake. However, you are quite right and I had better go. You will +not like my poetry; I see five-and-forty gentlemen who can write the +poetry that will give you pleasure; mine is written for the people, who +have to work that you may be happy. Little lady," he added, turning to +the Princess, "I pray you, think no more of me. As for me, I shall +love you to the end of my days." + +Then he tried to go, but the small, white fingers of the little blind +Princess were round his own rough, tanned ones, and he could not move. + +"I loved you before you came," she said, smiling. "I have been waiting +for you all the time. Why are you in such a hurry to go, if you love +me?" + +The listeners grew more scandalised every moment. No one had seen such +love-making before. To be sure, the five-and-forty poets had written +love songs innumerable, but that was not at all the same thing. Every +one felt that something ought to be done and nobody quite knew how to +do it. Fortunately, the King was hungry. + +"I think you had better say the rest in private, when we have had +lunch," he said grimly, and the courtiers looked immensely relieved, +and a place was found next to the Princess for the Poet; and the Queen +and her ladies in waiting proceeded to make conversation, and lunch +went on as usual. + +"Now," said the King, with a sigh, for meals were of far greater +importance to him than poetry, "you shall tell us one of your poems, so +that we may know whether you are a poet or not." + +Then the Poet stood up and told them one of his poems. It was about +the people who lived on the dark side of the city, and it was very +fierce, and bitter, and passionate; and when he had finished telling +it, he expected to be thrust out of the palace and banished from the +country, for that was what usually happened to him. There was a great +silence when he sat down again, and the Poet did not know what to make +of it. But the small, white fingers of the little Princess had again +stolen round his, and that was at least consoling. + +The Queen was the first to break the silence. + +"Charming," she said with an effort, "and so new." + +"We have heard nothing like it before," said the ladies in waiting. +"Are there really such people as that in the world? It might be +amusing to meet them, or, at least, to study them." + +The King glanced at all the other poets and said nothing at all. And +the five-and-forty kings' sons, who, if they were not poets, were at +least gentlemen, rose from their seats with one accord. + +"Her royal Highness was quite right," they said. "We are not poets at +all." + +Then they took leave of every one present and filed out of the room and +rode away to their respective countries, where, of course, nobody ever +suspected them of being poets; and they just remained Princes of the +royal blood and nothing else to the end of their days. + +"And you, little lady?" said the Poet, anxiously. + +"It was wonderful," answered the little blind Princess. "But there was +no love in it." + +By this time the Queen had ceased to be impressed and had begun to +remember that she was a Queen. + +"We are quite sure you are a poet," she said in her most queenly +manner, "because you have told us something that we did not know +before. But we think you are not a fit companion for her royal +Highness, and it is therefore time for you to go." + +"No, no!" cried the Princess. "You are not to go. You are my Poet, +and I want you to stay here always." + +Matters were becoming serious, and every one set to work to try to turn +the little Princess from her purpose. + +"He is shockingly untidy," whispered the ladies in waiting. + +"And _so_ ugly," murmured the Queen; "there is nothing distinguished +about him at all." + +"He will cost the nation something to keep," added the King, without +lowering his voice at all. + +But the little Princess turned a deaf ear to them all and held out her +hand again to the Poet. + +"I do not believe a word they say," she cried. "You cannot be ugly, +you with a voice like that! If you are ugly, then ugliness is what I +have wanted all my life. Ugliness is what I love, and you are to stay +here with me." + +In the end, it was the Poet himself who came to the rescue. + +"I cannot stay with you, little lady," he said gently. "It is true +what they say; I am too ugly to be tolerated, and it has been my good +fortune that you could not see me. I will go away and put some love +into my poetry, and then, perhaps, I shall find some one who will +listen to me." + +But the poor little Princess burst out sobbing. + +"If I could only see," she wept, "I would prove to you that I do not +think you ugly. Oh, if I could only see! I have never wanted to see +before." + +"Little lady," whispered the Poet, bending over her, "_I_ am glad that +you cannot see." + +And then, he turned and fled out of the palace and out of the city and +away from the country that contained the little Princess who had loved +him because she was blind. And he wandered from place to place as +before; but he told no one that he was a poet, for he had felt ashamed +of his poetry ever since the little Princess had said there was no love +in it. But there came a day when he could keep silent no longer, so he +went among the people once more and told them one of his poems. This +time, he had no difficulty in making them understand, for he told them +the story of his love for the little blind Princess. + +"Why," said the people, when he had finished, "the maid is easily +cured, for it is well known among our folk that a kiss on the eyelids +when asleep, from a true lover, will open the eyes of any one who has +been blind from birth." + +Now, when the Poet heard this, he was greatly perplexed. For to open +the eyes of his little Princess was to kill her love for him; and yet, +he could not forget how she had wept for the want of her sight, and +here was the power to give it back to her, and it rested with him alone +of all men in the world. So he determined to make her happy at any +cost, and he turned his face towards the King's palace once more and +arrived there at midday, after travelling for seven days and seven +nights without ceasing. But, of course, that was nothing to a poet who +was in love. + +"Dear me," said the King irritably, when the Poet appeared before him; +"I thought you had gone for good. And a pretty time we 've been having +of it with the Princess, in consequence! What have you come back for?" + +"I have come back to open the Princess's eyes," answered the Poet, +boldly. + +"It strikes me," grumbled the King, "that you opened everybody's eyes +pretty effectually, last time you were here. You certainly can't see +the Princess now, for she has gone to sleep in the garden." + +"That is exactly what I want," cried the Poet, joyfully. "Let me but +kiss her eyelids while she is sleeping, and by the time she awakes I +shall have gone for ever." + +"The Queen must deal with this," said the King, looking helpless in the +face of such a preposterous suggestion. Her Majesty was accordingly +sent for, and the Poet explained his mission all over again. + +"It is certainly unusual," said the Queen, doubtfully, "not to say out +of order. But still, in view of the advantage to be gained, and by +considering it in the light of medical treatment--and if you promise to +go away directly after, just like a physician, or--or a +singing-master,--perhaps something might be arranged." + +The end of it was that the Poet was taken into the garden, and there +was the little blind Princess sound asleep in her hammock, with a maid +of honour fanning her on each side. + +"Hush," whispered the Queen. "She must not awake, on _any_ account." + +"No," echoed the poor, ugly Poet; "she must not awake--on _my_ account." + +Then he bent over her, for the second time in his life, and touched her +eyelids with his lips. The Princess went on dreaming happily, but the +Poet turned and fled out of the city. + +"At least," he said, "she shall never know how ugly I am." + +That day, every Prince who was in the palace put on his best court +suit, in order to charm the Princess. But the Princess refused to be +charmed. She looked at them all, with large, frightened eyes, and sent +them away, one by one, as they came to offer her their congratulations. + +"Why do you congratulate me on being able to see you?" she asked them. +"Are you so beautiful, then?" + +"Oh, _no_," they said in a chorus. "Do not imagine such a thing for a +moment." + +"Then why should I be glad because I can see you?" persisted the +Princess; and they went away much perplexed. + +"Tell me what is beautiful," said the little Princess to her mother. +"All my life I have longed to look on beauty, and now it is all so +confusing that I cannot tell one thing from another. Is there anything +beautiful here?" + +"To be sure there is," replied the Queen. "This room is very beautiful +to begin with, and the nation is still being taxed to pay for it." + +"This room?" said the Princess in astonishment. "How can anything be +beautiful that keeps out the sun and the air? Tell me something else +that is beautiful." + +"The dresses of the ladies in waiting are very beautiful," said the +Queen. "And the ladies in waiting themselves might be called beautiful +by some, though that of course is a matter of opinion." + +"They all look alike to me," sighed the little Princess. "Is there +nothing else here that is beautiful?" + +"Certainly," answered the Queen, pointing out the wealthiest and most +eligible Prince in the room. "That is the handsomest man you could +ever want to see." + +"That?" said the Princess, disconsolately. "After all, one is best +without eyes! Can you not show me some ugliness for a change? Perhaps +it may be ugliness that I want to see so badly." + +"There is nothing ugly in the palace," replied the Queen. "When you +get used to everything you will be able to see how beautiful it all is." + +But the Princess sighed and came down from her golden throne and +wandered out into the garden. She walked uncertainly, for now that she +was no longer blind she did not know where she was going. And there, +under the trees where she had been sleeping a few hours back, stood a +man with his face buried in his hands. + +"Little lady," he stammered, "I tried to keep away, but--" + +Then the little Princess gave a shout of joy and pulled away his hands +and looked into his face for a full minute without speaking. She put +her small, white fingers into every one of his wrinkles, and she +touched every one of his ugly scars, and she drew a deep breath of +satisfaction. + +"Just fancy," laughed the little Princess to the Poet; "they have been +trying to persuade me in there that all those Princes and people +are--_beautiful_!" + + + + +[Illustration: THE ROCKING-HORSES RUSHED OVER THE GROUND] + + + + +The Wonderful Toymaker + +Princess Petulant sat on the nursery floor and cried. She was only +eight years old, but she had lived quite long enough to grow extremely +discontented; and the royal household was made very uncomfortable in +consequence. + +"I want a new toy," sobbed the little Princess. "Do you expect me to +go on playing with the same toys for ever? I might just as well not be +a Princess at all!" + +The whole country was searched in vain for a toy that would be likely +to please the Princess; but, as she already possessed every kind of toy +that has ever been heard of, nobody succeeded in finding her a new one. +So the little Princess went on crying bitterly, and the royal nurses +shook their heads and sighed. Then the King called a council in +despair. + +"It is very absurd," grumbled his Majesty, "that my daughter cannot be +kept amused. What is the use of an expensive government and a +well-dressed court, if there are not enough toys for her to play with? +Can no one invent a new toy for the Princess Petulant?" + +He looked sternly at all his councillors as he spoke; but his +councillors were so horrified at being expected to invent something +straight out of their heads that no one said anything at all until the +Prime Minister summoned up courage to speak. + +"Perhaps, if we were to send for Martin," he suggested, "her royal +Highness might consent to be comforted." + +"Who is Martin?" demanded the King. + +"He is my son," said the Prime Minister, apologetically; "and he spends +his days either dreaming by himself or playing with the Princess +Petulant. He will never be Prime Minister," he added sadly, "but he +might think of a way to amuse the Princess." + +So the King dismissed the council with much relief and sent for Martin +to come and play with his daughter. Martin walked straight up to the +royal nursery and found the spoilt little Princess still crying on the +floor. So down on the floor sat Martin too; and he looked at her very +solemnly out of his round, serious eyes, and he asked her why she was +crying. + +"I want a new toy," she pouted. "I am tired of all my old toys. Don't +you think you can find me a new toy to play with, Martin?" + +"If I do," said Martin, "will you promise not to be cross when I run +faster than you do?" + +The Princess nodded. + +"And will you promise not to mind when I don't want to play any more?" + +The Princess nodded again. + +"And will you promise not to call me sulky when I don't feel inclined +to talk?" continued Martin. + +"Yes, yes!" cried Princess Petulant. "You won't be long before you +find it, will you, Martin?" + +"In four weeks from now," said the Prime Minister's son, "you will have +me with you again." + +"And I shall have my new toy," said the Princess Petulant, sighing +contentedly. + +Now, Martin was one of the few children who can see the fairies. He +knew how to coax the flower fairies to speak to him, and how to find +the wood fairies when they hid among the ferns, and how to laugh back +when the wymps made fun of him; and, above all, he knew how to find his +way to Bobolink, the Purple Enchanter, who knows everything. And he +found his way to Bobolink, on the evening of that very same day. + +Bobolink, the Purple Enchanter, sat on his amethyst throne in the +middle of a grove of deadly nightshade. He was the ugliest enchanter +any one has ever seen; and on each side of him sat an enormous purple +toad with an ugly purple smile on his face. Even the sun's rays shone +purple in the home of the Purple Enchanter; and Martin stared at him +for a whole minute without speaking. For, although Martin was two +years older than the little Princess Petulant, he was not a very big +boy for all that; and there was something that made him feel a little +queer in the purple face, and the purple hands, and the purple +expression of Bobolink. + +"Why don't you say something?" growled Bobolink, in just the kind of +voice one would expect such a very ugly person to have. "What are you +thinking about, eh? If it's anything about me, you 'd better say so at +once!" + +"Well," said Martin, as bravely as he could, "I was thinking that it +must be very odd to be so purple as you are. Of course," he added +politely, "I don't suppose you can help it exactly, because even the +sun is purple here, and perhaps you have got sunpurpled instead of +sunburned." + +"May I ask," said Bobolink, rolling his purple eyes about, "if you came +all this way on purpose to make remarks about me?" + +"No, I did n't," explained Martin, hurriedly. "I came to ask you the +way to the Wonderful Toymaker, who makes all the toys for Fairyland. I +am going to fetch a new toy for the Princess Petulant." + +"And how do you think you are going to get it?" asked Bobolink, with a +chuckle. + +"That is exactly what I want you to tell me," said Martin, boldly. + +Now, Bobolink, the Purple Enchanter, was used to being visited by +people who wanted to get something out of him, because, as I said +before, Bobolink knows everything. But he had never come across any +one who did not begin by flattering him; and he took a fancy to Martin +from the moment he told him he was sunpurpled. So he smiled as well as +he could,--which was not very well, for he had never done such a thing +before and his jaws were extremely stiff,--and for the moment he hardly +looked ugly at all. + +"I like you," he said, nodding at the small figure of the Prime +Minister's son; "and I am going to help you. Of course, I know quite +well where the Wonderful Toymaker lives; but I have promised the pine +dwarfs not to tell, because it is the only secret they possess, and it +would break their hearts if any one were to hear it from me instead of +from them. You see, when a person knows everything he must keep some +of it to himself, or else there would be nothing left for anybody else +to say, and then there would be no more conversation. That is the +worst of knowing everything. But I can show you the way to the pine +dwarfs; and if you keep perfectly quiet and speak in a whisper to them, +they'll tell you all you want to know." + +"Why must I keep perfectly quiet and speak in a whisper?" asked Martin. + +Bobolink scowled, and became as ugly as ever again. + +"Now you want to know too much, and that is n't fair," he complained. +"I 'll tell you the way to the pine dwarfs, and you must find out the +rest for yourself. Go straight ahead and take the hundred and first +turning to the right, and the fifty-second turning to the left, then +turn round seventeen times; and if that is n't good enough for you I +'ll never help you again. Now, off you go!" + +Martin saw that he was no longer wanted and set off as fast as he +could. It took him a whole week to reach the hundred and first turning +on the right; and it was the most anxious week he had ever spent, for +he had to keep counting the turnings all the time and was dreadfully +afraid of losing count altogether. And the fifty-second turning on the +left was almost as bad, for his way took him through a large town, and +he dare not stay to speak to any one for fear of overlooking one of the +little streets. He left the town behind him at last; and after walking +for two days longer, he reached the fifty-second turning on his left, +and it led him to the middle of a vast sandy plain. + +"How queer!" thought Martin. "Not a single tree to be seen! Surely +the pine dwarfs don't live in a place like this? Perhaps old Bobolink +has only hoaxed me after all." + +However, he turned round seventeen times just to see what would happen; +and the first thing that happened was that he became remarkably giddy +and had to sit down on the ground to recover himself. When he did +recover he found he was in a beautiful thick pine wood, with the +sunshine coming through the branches, and flickering here and there +over the ground, and painting the great big pine trunks bright red. +Over it all hung the most delicious silence, only broken by the soft +passage of the wind through the pine leaves. Martin had almost +forgotten the warning Bobolink had given him, but, even if he had quite +forgotten it, nothing would have induced him to speak loudly in such a +stillness as that. + +"Are you there, little pine dwarfs?" he whispered, as he looked up +through the pine trees at the blue sky on the other side. No sooner +had his whisper travelled up through the hushed air than all the +branches seemed to be filled with life and movement; and what Martin +had believed to be brown pine cones suddenly moved, and ran about among +the trees, and slid down the long red trunks. And then he saw they +were dear little brown dwarfs, who surrounded him by hundreds and +thousands, and travelled up and down his boots, and stared at him with +looks full of curiosity. + +"Who are you, little boy, and where do you come from?" they seemed to +be saying; and as they spoke all together their voices sounded exactly +like the wind as we hear it in the pine trees. They were so gentle and +kind-looking that Martin was not a bit afraid and asked them at once to +tell him the way to the Wonderful Toymaker who makes all the toys for +Fairyland. They were delighted to tell him all they knew, for it was +their one secret and they were very proud of it; and so few people ever +came that way that they had very few opportunities of telling it. So +their honest little brown faces were covered with good-nature and +smiles, as they crooned out their information. + +"You must walk straight through the wood," they said, "until you come +to a waterfall at the beginning of a stream; and you must follow the +stream down, down, down, until it brings you to a valley surrounded by +high hills; and in that valley is the toyshop of the Wonderful +Toymaker, who makes all the toys for Fairyland." + +"That is simple enough, I 'm sure," said Martin. + +"Ah," said the pine dwarfs, wisely, "but it is not so easy to get there +as you think; for the stream leads you through the country of the +people who make conversation, and they try to stop every stranger who +passes by, so that they can make him into conversation; and that is why +so few people ever reach the Wonderful Toymaker at all." + +"Make conversation! How funny!" said Martin; and he almost laughed +aloud at the idea. + +"It is more sad than funny," said the pine dwarfs, sighing like a large +gust of wind that for the moment made Martin feel quite chilly; "for it +gives _us_ so much to do. You see, they make conversation, and we make +silence; and the more conversation they make the more silence we have +to make to keep things even. They are always ahead of us, for all +that!" They sighed again. Martin looked puzzled. + +"Still, your silence is so full of sound," he said. The pine dwarfs +laughed softly, so softly that most people would have called it only +smiling. + +"Real silence, the best kind, is always full of sound; and of course we +only make the very best kind," they explained proudly. "Anybody can +make the other kind of silence by taking the air and sifting out the +noise in it. Now, _we_ take the air, and when we have sifted out the +noise we fill it with sound. That's a very different thing. The worst +of it is," they added, sadly, "there is so little demand for real +silence. We have layers of it piled up at the top, of those pine +trees, and nobody ever wants it. The other silence is so much cheaper, +you see, and most people don't know the difference." + +"When I am grown up and have a house of my own," said Martin, "I shall +come and ask you to fill it with the very best silence for me." + +The pine dwarfs shook their little brown heads incredulously. + +"Wait till you are grown up," they said; "and then, if you will let us +fill one room for you, we shall be quite satisfied. Now, set off on +your journey; and if you want to escape being made into conversation, +you must not speak a single word until you reach the valley where the +Wonderful Toymaker lives." + +"Trust me!" laughed Martin. "It is only talking that is difficult; any +one can keep silent." + +"Very well; be careful, only be careful!" they sighed; and in another +moment they had all gone back to their pine trees, and nothing was to +be heard except the distant sounds with which they were filling the +silence. + +Then Martin walked on until he came to the rushing waterfall; and along +by the side of the stream he trudged and thought it was the very +noisiest stream he had ever come across, for it clattered over the +stones, and splashed up in the air, and seemed bent on getting through +life with as much fuss and excitement as it was possible to make. As +he walked along by its side, he discovered that the noise it made was +caused by millions of little voices, chattering and gossiping, +quarrelling and laughing, as busily as they could. + +"This must be the country where they make conversation," thought +Martin. "Well, I must be pretty careful not to let them know I can +talk." At the same time, the longer he walked by that talkative little +stream the easier it was to forget the silence in the pine wood; and he +began to think that, after all, one silent room would be quite enough +in the house he was going to have some day. Presently, there were not +only voices in the stream beside him but all around him as well, in the +trees, and the flowers, and the grass, and the air; and they were not +the pretty little voices of the fairies which he knew so well, but they +were the harsh, shrill, unpleasant voices of unpleasant people, who +must have spent their lives in chattering about things that did not +concern them. Then the voices came closer and closer to him, and +buzzed up round his head, and shrieked into his ears, asking him dozens +and dozens of questions, until it was all he could do not to shout at +them to leave him alone. + +"Who are you? Where do you come from? What do you want? Where are +you going? What are you doing here? Why don't you answer? How did +you get here? Whom did you meet on the way? Did they tell you +anything interesting? What is your name? How old are you? Who is +your father? What is your mother like? Does she give parties? Does +she invite many people? Do you know the King? Have you been to court? +Does the Queen dress well? Do you like jam or cake best? What is your +favourite sweet? Don't you think we are very amusing?" etc., etc., etc. + +These were only a few of the questions they asked Martin, but they +quite cured him of any wish to speak; and, instead of telling them +anything about himself, he just put his hands over his ears and ran as +fast as he could until he dropped down, very much out of breath, some +way further along the stream. As he sat there, delighted at having +escaped from all those impertinent voices, a curious little fish with a +bent back popped his head above the water and nodded to him. + +"Good morning," said the fish. His tone was so friendly that Martin +forgot all about the warning of the pine dwarfs, and entered into +conversation with him. + +"This is a strange country," said Martin. + +"It's a very busy country," answered the fish. "None of us get left +alone for long; and as for me, I never get any peace at all. If I +could only get my tail into my mouth, things would be very different." + +"You look as though you had been trying a good deal," observed Martin. +"I suppose that is why your back is so bent." + +"Bent?" cried the fish, angrily. "Nothing of the sort! On the +contrary, it has a most elegant curve. It's not the shape I complain +about, it's the difference in the work. You see, if I could only get +my tail into my mouth I should be a Full-stop; and Full-stops have so +little to do nowadays that I should be able to retire at once. Being a +Comma is quite another matter; it's work, work, work, from year's end +to year's end. Hullo! What is it now?" + +His last remark was addressed to another fish, who seemed to have +succeeded in getting his tail into his mouth, and who spoke very +huskily in consequence. + +"Come along," he said to the Comma-fish; "you 've got to help me to +make a Semi-colon." + +"Oh, dear, oh, dear!" replied the other. "I do wish Colons were more +used; it would at least give me a rest and use up some of you +Full-stops for a change." + +Martin was just going to sympathise with the poor little overworked +Comma-fish, when the storm of voices he had left behind suddenly +managed to overtake him; and there they were once more, buzzing round +his head and shrieking in his ears, until he was almost deafened by the +noise; while dozens of invisible hands were lifting him from the ground +and carrying him along at a terrific pace. + +"He has spoken, he has spoken!" the voices were shouting triumphantly, +as they bore him along. "He is ours to make conversation of!" + +Then they took him into a magnificent glittering palace, made of glass +of a thousand colours; and invisible voices told him it was all his and +he should be king over it, if he would only make conversation for them. +It was the most beautiful palace a king could possibly have wished for; +and even the Prime Minister's son was dazzled by it for the moment. +There was everything in it that a boy could want; if he pulled a golden +cord, down fell a shower of chocolate creams; if he went to the +strawberry ice room, there was a wooden spade for him to dig it out +with, and a wheelbarrow in which to bring it away; if he wanted a +present, he had only to turn on the present-tap and out came whatever +he wished for. So he immediately wished for a six-bladed knife, a real +pony, and a gold watch. For all that, he was not a bit happy. The +incessant talking around him never ceased for a moment; the air seemed +packed with people whom he never saw, but who asked him innumerable +questions which he never attempted to answer. Besides this, all the +furniture talked as well. When he opened the door it made remarks +about the way he did it, which were not at all polite. If he sat on +the arm of a chair, it pointed out to him in a hurt tone that chairs +were not intended to be used in that way. When he cut his name on the +mahogany dining-table, it shouted abuse at him until he had to paint +over the letters to appease it. The windows chatted pleasantly about +the weather when the wind blew, instead of rattling; and the fires +gossiped when they were lighted, instead of crackling and smoking. He +gave up riding his pony after it had told him the history of its +childhood for the fifteenth time; and when he found that his gold watch +was always telling stories instead of telling the time he had to get +rid of that too. As for his six-bladed knife, it wearied him so much +by telling him the same thing six times over that he threw it out of +the window as far as he could. All this was excessively trying to a +boy who had never talked much in the whole of his life; and the worst +of it was that he was prevented by magic from running away; so the four +weeks came to an end, and he had not found a new toy for the Princess +Petulant. + +Meanwhile, the little Princess had been waiting, and waiting, and +waiting. In all the eight years of her life she had never waited so +patiently for anything; and the affairs of the country went on quite +smoothly in consequence. When, however, the four weeks were over and +Martin did not return with her new toy, Princess Petulant grew tired of +being good, and, once more, she lay on the nursery floor and sobbed; +and, once more, there was consternation in the royal household. So the +King called another council. + +"Haven't you got any more sons?" he demanded crossly of the Prime +Minister. The Prime Minister shook his head, and owned sadly that he +had only one son. + +"Then why do you lose him?" said the King, still more crossly. "Does +no one know where the Prime Minister's son has gone?" + +The councillors looked helplessly at one another. One thought that +Martin had gone to Fairyland; another said it was to Toyland; and a +third declared he must be with the wymps at the back of the sun. But, +as nobody knew how to get to any of these places, the suggestions of +his councillors only made the King more annoyed than before. At last, +he asked the Queen's advice; and the Queen proposed that the little +Princess should attend the council and explain why she was crying. +However, when they sent up to the royal nursery for the Princess +Petulant, there was no Princess to be seen; and the royal nurses were +rushing everywhere in great confusion, trying to find her. + +"It is a most extraordinary thing," cried the King, "that we cannot +keep anybody in the place! What is the use of children who do nothing +but lose themselves? There must be wympcraft in this!" + +The Queen only said "Poor children!" and set to work to have the +country searched for the missing pair, and sat down to cry by herself +until they could be found. + +What had really happened was quite simple. While the Princess Petulant +was sobbing on the nursery floor, something came through the open +window and dropped with a thud just in front of her. This astonished +her so much, that she stopped crying and looked up to see what it was. +There stood a little pine dwarf, holding his hands to his ears. + +"Dear, dear!" crooned the pine dwarf in his soft voice. "What are you +making such a noise for?" + +"I am crying because Martin has not come back," said the Princess, +sorrowfully. "He promised to fetch me a new toy, and he has never +broken his promise before. I do wish he would come back. Even if he +does n't bring me a new toy, I wish he would come back." + +"Ah," said the pine dwarf, smiling, "now I think I can help you. But +you must not cry any more; it is almost as bad as the noise they are +making in the country where Martin is imprisoned." + +"Oh!" cried Princess Petulant, clapping her hands; "do you _really_ +know where Martin is?" + +"Come along with me and see," said the pine dwarf. The next thing the +Princess knew was that she was gliding through the air in the most +delicious manner possible; and she never stopped until she found +herself by the side of the waterfall, that stands at the edge of the +country where they make conversation. + +"I cannot take you any further," said the pine dwarf; "because there is +so much noise down there that it would blow me into little pieces at +once. Follow the stream along until it brings you to a glass palace, +and there you will find Martin waiting for you. Whatever you do, +though, you must not speak a word to any one until you find him. Do +you think you can do this?" + +The Princess was thoughtful for a whole minute. + +"I can do it if I stop up my ears with cotton wool," she said. "I am +quite certain I should speak if I heard any one talking to me." + +The pine dwarf smiled again; and a linnet, who had overheard their +conversation, kindly offered the Princess a piece of cotton wool from +the nest he was making; and she thanked him as charmingly as a Princess +should, and immediately stuffed it into her two little pink ears. Then +she kissed her hand to the good little pine dwarf, and ran away along +the stream; and she never stopped running until she reached the +magnificent, glittering glass palace; and there she saw Martin right in +the middle of it, sitting at the table with his head in his hands. + +"I do believe he is crying!" thought Princess Petulant; and she very +nearly cried too at the mere thought of it, for no one had ever seen +the Prime Minister's son cry before. She picked up a stone instead, +however, and sent it right through the glass wall of the palace,--for +she was in far too great a hurry to go round to the door,--and she made +a hole large enough to slip through; and into the room she bounded, +where Martin sat thinking about her. + +They kissed each other a great many times; and Martin pulled the cotton +wool out of her two little pink ears, and told her all that had +happened, and how miserable he had been because he could not keep his +promise to her, and how dreadfully tired he was of conversation. + +"Even now," he added, sadly, "I don't suppose they will let me go with +you. Just listen to their stupid voices! I shall have to bear that +for the rest of my life." + +"Oh, no, you won't!" buzzed the voices in the air. "You can go away as +soon as you like. It is quite hopeless to think of making you into +conversation; you are the most unconversational prisoner we have ever +captured. If the Princess had not put cotton wool in her ears we +should have caught her directly; and what splendid conversation she +would have made! Unfortunately, she is out of our power now, because +she reached you without speaking a word; so you can go off together as +soon as you like." + +They did not wait to be told twice, but set off at once, hand in hand, +and walked straight on until they reached the top of the hill that +slopes down into the valley where the Wonderful Toymaker lives. Then +they ran a race down the side of the hill; and of course Martin allowed +the Princess to win, so she was the first, after all, to see the most +wonderful toyshop in the world. It was so wonderful that she actually +remained speechless with astonishment, until Martin caught her up; and +then they stood side by side and stared at it. + +To begin with, it was not a toyshop at all. The whole of the valley +was strewn with toys: they lay on the ground in heaps, they were piled +high up on the rocks, they hung from the trees and made them look like +huge Christmas trees, and they covered the bushes like blossoms: +wherever the children looked, they saw toys, toys, toys. And such +toys, too! People who have never been to Fairyland can have no idea of +the toys that are made by the Wonderful Toymaker; even Martin, who was +a friend of the fairies, had never seen anything like them before. As +for the Princess Petulant--her large blue eyes were open, and her +little round mouth was open, and she could not have spoken a word to +please anybody. + +Then, suddenly, into the middle of it all stepped the Wonderful +Toymaker. Any one who has lived for thousands and thousands of years +might reasonably be expected to look old, but the Wonderful Toymaker +looked young enough to play with his own toys; when he laughed, the +children felt that they should never feel unhappy again; and when he +came running towards them, turning coach-wheels on the way, they felt +certain that he was only a very little older than themselves. For that +is what happens when a man has been making toys for thousands and +thousands of years. + +"My dear children, how pleased I am to see you!" he cried joyfully. +"At last, I shall have some one to play with! Come and look at my two +new tops." + +He took them by the hands and raced them across the valley to his +workshop, which was strewn with gold and silver tools with handles made +of rubies; and he took up a gaily painted top and set it spinning by +blowing gently upon it three times. As it spun it began to hum a tune, +and in the tune they could hear every sound that the world +contains,--birds singing and wind whistling, children laughing and +children crying, people talking and people quarrelling, pretty sounds +and ugly sounds, one after another, until the children were spellbound +with astonishment. + +"Oh, oh!" cried Princess Petulant, as the top rolled over on its side. +"I never heard anything so beautiful before." + +"The top is yours, since you like it," said the Wonderful Toymaker, +handing it to her with a bow. "Now listen to my other new top." + +Then he took up another one, made of burnished copper, and gave it a +twist with his fingers, and it began to spin with all its might; and as +it spun round, the song it sang was one that could never be described, +for it was full of the sounds that do not exist at all, the sounds that +are only to be heard in Fairyland when we are lucky enough to go there. +It made the Princess Petulant feel sleepy; but Martin gave a shout of +pleasure when it stopped spinning. + +"I like that one much better," he said. + +"It is the finest toy I have ever made," said the Wonderful Toymaker; +"and it is yours because you know how to appreciate it. Now, we will +play games!" + +They had never played such games in their lives before, nor had they +ever had such a delightful playfellow. He put such feelings of joy and +happiness into their hearts that the little Princess wondered how she +could ever have felt discontented, and Martin never once wanted to stop +and dream. They played with toys that would not break, however badly +they were treated; they chased one another over the rocks and through +the bushes, without getting out of breath at all; and when they could +not think of anything else to do, they laughed and laughed and laughed +and laughed. Then they sat down on the grass to rest; and the +Wonderful Toymaker sat between them and smiled at them both. + +"Now, we will refresh ourselves by eating unwholesome sweets," he said, +and he gave a long low whistle. Immediately, they were pelted from all +sides by the most delicious, unwholesome sweets that were ever made; +but, although they were ever so unwholesome, and although the children +ate quantities and quantities of them, they were not in the least bit +the worse for it; and when they had eaten all they could, the Wonderful +Toymaker filled their pockets for them, and laughed again. + +"Won't you stop here always?" he asked them. + +The children shook their heads. + +"I must go back to mother," said the Princess Petulant. "She must be +wondering where I am, now." + +"And I have got to be Prime Minister, some day," said Martin, with a +sigh. + +"You will never be Prime Minister," said the Toymaker, just as his +father was always saying. "Why can't you both stay with me? Only +think of all the games we can have, and the toys we can make, and the +unwholesome sweets we can eat! Won't you really stay and play with me?" + +However, when he saw that they were quite determined to go home, he +made the best of it and asked them whether they would like to go by +sea, or by sky, or by land. Martin wanted to go by sky, but when the +Princess said she would much prefer to go by land as she had come most +of the way by sky, the Prime Minister's son gave in at once and said +that he had meant to choose the land road all the time. So the +Toymaker fetched two beautiful rocking-horses and helped the children +to mount them, and said he should never forget their visit for the rest +of his life. He could not have said more than that, for of course he +has been living ever since. + +So they rode out of the valley and up the hill-side, and they waved +their hands to the Wonderful Toymaker who stood looking disconsolately +after them, and they wished they could have played with him just a +little longer. They had very little time even to wish, however, for +the rocking-horses rushed over the ground at such a pace that they +could see nothing they were passing; so, after all, they would have +been none the wiser if they had come by sky as Martin had wished. Then +the townspeople came out of their houses and stared with amazement, as +they saw their King's daughter and their Prime Minister's son racing +past them on wooden horses; but they had no time, either, to make +remarks on the matter before the children were out of sight again, for +the wooden horses never stopped until they brought their riders to the +palace gates; and then they disappeared and left Martin and the +Princess Petulant knocking for admission. + +Then there was a hullabaloo! The Queen dried her tears and hugged them +both, one after another; and the King dismissed the council which had +not helped him in the least; and the Prime Minister was more convinced +than ever that his son would never be Prime Minister; and the two +children span their tops before the whole court and told the story of +their adventures. And it was at once written down, word for word, by +the Royal Historian, and that is how it has got inside this book. + +The two children never visited the Wonderful Toymaker again; and Martin +never became Prime Minister. One day he became King instead; and it +was all because he married the Princess Petulant the moment he was +grown up. They thoroughly enjoyed life for the rest of their days, and +so did everybody else in the kingdom, down to the Prime Minister and +the Royal Historian; and this was all because they never lost the +wonderful tops which had been given them by the Wonderful Toymaker. + + + + +[Illustration: HE CURLED HIMSELF UP IN THE SUN AND CLOSED HIS EYES] + + + + +The Professor of Practical Jokes + +Years and years and years ago, in a country that has been long +forgotten, there lived a king called Grumbelo. In spite of his +extremely ugly name, which was certainly no fault of his, he was young, +handsome, and talented; and this made it all the more remarkable that +he had never thought of seeking a wife. He ruled his country so well +that not a single poor or ill-treated person was to be found in the +whole of it; and yet, it was the dullest country that has ever existed. +The reason for this was plain; the King was all very well in his way, +and to be well-governed no doubt has its advantages, but the people +were unreasonable and they wanted more than this. They wanted court +balls, and court banquets, and royal processions through the streets, +with bands playing and flags flying; they wanted more play, and more +holidays, and more fun; and all these things, as every one knows well, +are only to be had when there is a Queen at court. The King, however, +was so well satisfied with himself that it never occurred to him how +dreadfully dull his kingdom was growing; and he was exceedingly +surprised when a number of the courtiers, headed by the Royal +Comptroller of Whole Holidays and the learned Professor of Practical +Jokes,--who had been positively out of work ever since his serious +young Majesty came to the throne,--waited upon him one morning, with +the humble request that he should begin to think about finding a Queen. + +"What more can you want?" asked the young King in astonishment. +"Surely a King, or at least a King such as I am, is enough for my +subjects! I am quite satisfied with myself: is it possible that the +country is not equally satisfied?" + +"The country is more than satisfied with your excellent Majesty," +explained the Comptroller of Whole Holidays. "The country has never +been so admirably governed before. It feels, however, that certain +other things are almost as important, your Majesty, as wise laws and +honest toil; such as--such as whole holidays, for instance." + +"And practical jokes," murmured the learned Professor at his side. + +His Majesty was silent. It seemed incredible that the country should +want anything more than the excellent government of King Grumbelo; but +he was fond of his people at heart,--in spite of the dulness to which +he had brought them, and so he consented in the end to give them a +Queen. + +"Go and find me the most beautiful, the most silent, and the most +foolish Princess in the world," he said to them. "She must be the most +beautiful because I shall have to look at her, and the most silent +because I am able to talk for both of us, and the most foolish because +I can be wise for her as well as for myself. If you find me a Princess +like this I will make her my Queen." + +Not long after, the King held a reception for all the beautiful +Princesses who could be collected at such a very short notice. There +were a hundred and fifty altogether; but although they were without +doubt both beautiful and foolish, they never stopped talking for an +instant, and not one of them would King Grumbelo have for his Queen. +So the Royal Comptroller of Whole Holidays and the learned Professor of +Practical Jokes put their heads together once more, and in a few days' +time they came again to the King. + +"We have heard at last of the Princess who would suit you," they said +to him. "She is so beautiful that the trees stop gossiping and the +flowers stop breathing when she passes by; and she is so silent that if +it were not for the wonderful expression in her eyes it would be +impossible to hold any conversation with her at all." + +"Ah," said King Grumbelo, nodding his royal head approvingly; "and is +she very foolish as well?" + +"That she must be, your Majesty," said the Comptroller of Whole +Holidays, looking nervously towards the Professor of Practical Jokes, +"because, your Majesty,--well, because--" + +"Because she has refused to have anything to do with your Majesty," +boldly interrupted the Professor. + +"What?" cried the King, astounded. "She does not _wish_ to be my +Queen?" + +"Not exactly that, your Majesty," stammered the Comptroller of Whole +Holidays; "but she declares she could never marry any one who--who--" + +"Who has so ridiculous a name as your Majesty!" said the Professor of +Practical Jokes without a moment's hesitation. + +King Grumbelo stepped down from his throne and merely smiled. + +"That is of no consequence," he observed. "Evidently she knows nothing +about me except my unfortunate name, and that I certainly did not give +myself. Tell me at once where this wonderful Princess is to be found." + +"That is exactly what we do not know, your Majesty," they confessed, +reluctantly. "As soon as the Princess heard that your Majesty wished +to make her a Queen she fled from the country, and we have not been +able to discover where she has hidden herself!" + +"No matter," said King Grumbelo, actually omitting to scold them for +their stupidity; "it is never difficult to find the most beautiful +Princess in the world! Bring me my horse at once; you can make ready +for the royal wedding as soon as you please." + +The country was very badly governed while the King was away; but it was +certainly not dull. Every person in the kingdom was occupied in making +preparations for the royal wedding, and it was going to be such a +particularly grand royal wedding that the people were kept thoroughly +amused by looking forward to it alone. When, however, the last touch +had been put to the preparations, and there was positively nothing left +for any one to do, the people began to grumble. It was clear that +there could not be a marriage if nobody was there to be married, and no +tidings had been received of King Grumbelo since he rode away to fetch +his bride. There is no doubt that the discontent of the people would +have ended in a revolution if the Professor of Practical Jokes had not +hit upon a happy idea. "It is true that we cannot have a royal +wedding," said the Professor of Practical Jokes; "but we can pretend to +have one." + +The Comptroller of Whole Holidays was only too delighted to fall in +with the idea, and at once issued a proclamation to the effect that the +country should take a whole holiday until further notice. After that, +the people could not think of grumbling; they gave themselves up to +general rejoicing, and pretended, day after day, that the King was +being married, until they almost forgot that there was not even a king +in the country. + +Meanwhile, King Grumbelo was riding by night and by day in search of +his beautiful, silent Princess. He rode for many months without +discovering a trace of her; but instead of growing tired of his search +he only became the more anxious to find her. One day, as he was riding +through a wood, he came upon a sweet-smelling hedge, all made of +honeysuckle and sweet-briar, so high that he could not climb it, and so +thick that he could not see through it. + +"Dear me!" thought King Grumbelo, "something charming must be hidden +behind so pretty a hedge as this!" He rode along it with his mind full +of curiosity until he came to two slender, pink-and-white gates, made +entirely of apple-blossom; and through these he could see a +fresh-looking garden with green lawns and gravel paths and bright +flower-beds, and in the middle of it all a dainty little house made of +nothing but rose leaves. The King was so impatient to know who was the +owner of such a delightful little dwelling that he knocked at once on +the gates for admission; and a dragon with a singularly mild and +harmless expression appeared inside, and asked him gently what he +wanted. The King looked at him in surprise; for, although he was +decidedly small for a dragon, he was certainly much too large and too +clumsy to live in a house made entirely of rose leaves. + +"Can you tell me who lives here?" asked King Grumbelo, politely; for, +as every one knows, it is always wise to be polite to a dragon however +small he may be. + +"Oh, yes," answered the dragon, with a wave of his tail towards the +house and the garden; "I live here." + +"Nonsense!" said the King, forgetting in his surprise to be polite. +"You could not possibly live in so small a house as that!" + +"If you want to know who lives inside the house you should say so," +answered the dragon, in an injured tone. "It is n't likely that a +well-bred dragon would live inside anything. You should be more +careful in the way you express yourself." + +"Well, well," said the King, impatiently, "perhaps you can tell me to +whom the house belongs?" + +"No, I can't," answered the dragon, with a smile; "because it does n't +belong to anybody, you see. It is here because it is wanted, and when +it is n't wanted any longer it will cease to be here." + +"What a curious house!" exclaimed the King. + +"Curious? Not at all!" said the dragon, looking injured again. "It +would be much more curious if it were to remain here when it was n't +wanted. You should n't make needless remarks." + +If King Grumbelo had not been so anxious to find out who did live +inside the house he would certainly have ridden away, there and then; +but the more he looked at the beautiful garden and the charming little +dwelling of rose leaves, the more he longed for an answer to his +question. So he kept his temper with difficulty, and turned once more +to the aggravating dragon. + +"Does anybody live inside the house?" he asked. + +"Of course," answered the dragon. "Do they build houses in your +country to be looked at? I suppose you can't help it, but I have never +been asked so many senseless questions before." + +"Answer me one more and I will go away," said King Grumbelo. "Does a +beautiful Princess, the most beautiful you have ever seen, live inside +the house over there?" + +"There is no Princess in the place, be assured of that," answered the +dragon, emphatically. "I should not be here if there were; it is a +thankless task to keep guard over a Princess; it means nothing but +spells and fighting and unpleasantness, and in the end the Princess +complains that you have kept the right people away. Oh, no, nothing +would induce me to take another place with a Princess. We 've nothing +of _that_ kind here." + +"Then I 'll bid you good-day," said King Grumbelo, for he did not mean +to waste any more time. Just as he was going to ride away, however, +the door of the little house opened, and out of it stepped the +sweetest-looking little lady the world has ever contained. She was so +beautiful that as she walked down the path the flowers stopped +breathing and the trees stopped gossiping; and she had such wonderful +eyes that to look at them was to know everything she was thinking +about. She glanced once at the King as he stood outside the gates of +apple-blossom, and then she turned aside without speaking a word and +passed out of sight among the flower-beds. Then the King knew that his +search was over; she was beautiful and silent enough to please him, +whether she were foolish or not; and he made up his mind on the spot +not to search any more for the disdainful Princess who had run away +from him. + +"Who is she?" he asked the dragon, eagerly. + +"The Lady Whimsical, to be sure," answered the dragon. "What a lot of +questions you ask!" + +"Then go and tell the Lady Whimsical that if she pleases I would like +to speak with her," said King Grumbelo. + +The dragon did not move. + +"The Lady Whimsical never speaks," he observed. "It would really be +much wiser if you were to go away." + +"I am not going away," shouted the King, growing angry. "Go and ask +her at once if she will receive me, or I will put you out of the way +for good and all!" + +"Very well," said the dragon, sighing; "I suppose I must. What name?" + +"King Grumbelo," answered the King, proudly. + +He fully expected that the dragon would fall flat on the ground at the +mention of such an important name as his; but the dragon did nothing of +the kind. + +"It is not a bit of use expecting to come in here with a name like +that," he complained. "The Lady Whimsical cannot bear anything ugly, +and she has a particular horror of ugly names. I have strict orders +never to mention an ugly name in her presence. You had really better +go away." + +"I am not going away," shouted the King once more. "Go and tell the +Lady Whimsical that a great King, who has heard how charming and how +gracious she is, would like to make himself known to her." + +The dragon consented unwillingly to take this message, and ambled +clumsily away among the flower-beds. When he came back, he found the +King pacing restlessly up and down. + +"Can't you keep still?" growled the dragon. "Your ridiculous name is +enough to make any one giddy without--" + +"What did the Lady Whimsical say?" interrupted King Grumbelo, +impatiently. + +"The Lady Whimsical never says," answered the dragon drowsily, as he +curled himself up in the sun and closed his eyes; "but she will allow +you to look at her for five minutes every morning, at two hours after +sunrise." + +Two hours after sunrise on the following morning, King Grumbelo was +accordingly admitted into the garden beyond the pink-and-white gates of +apple-blossom. There sat the Lady Whimsical on the doorstep of her +rose-leaf dwelling, and in front of her stood the King. + +"You are the most charming person I have ever seen," declared the King. + +The Lady Whimsical smiled. + +"I never thought I should find any one so charming as you are," said +the King. + +The Lady Whimsical smiled again. + +"Nor so silent," continued the King. + +The Lady Whimsical smiled for the third time. + +"Nor so--" began the King, and then he paused, for he thought she might +possibly object to being called foolish, though foolish she undoubtedly +was if she did not wish him to stay longer than five minutes. As he +hesitated, the Lady Whimsical burst out laughing and ran inside her +little house of rose leaves, and banged the door in his face. + +"Time's up," said the dragon, and King Grumbelo went away puzzled. He +came back again, however, at the same time on the following morning; +and there sat Lady Whimsical on the doorstep of her rose-leaf dwelling, +just as though she were expecting him. + +"I have thought only of you since yesterday morning," sighed King +Grumbelo. + +The Lady Whimsical smiled as before. + +"I shall think only of you for the rest of my days," declared the King. + +The Lady Whimsical smiled even more than before. + +"Do you know why I have come all this way to find you?" demanded the +King, growing bolder. + +The Lady Whimsical shook her head at him, burst out laughing, and ran +inside her rose-leaf house as she had done the day before. + +Two hours after sunrise on the following morning, the Lady Whimsical +was once more seated on her doorstep, and King Grumbelo was once more +standing in front of her. + +"You are so beautiful that I shall never tire of looking at you," said +the King. + +Again, the Lady Whimsical only smiled. + +"You are so silent that you will always allow me to talk enough for +both of us," continued the King. + +The Lady Whimsical smiled once more. + +"And since you are so foolish as to send me away every morning," said +the King, "you must surely be foolish enough to be the Queen of so wise +a King as myself." + +The Lady Whimsical had never laughed so heartily at anything as she did +at these words of King Grumbelo; and even after she had banged the door +in his face, he could still hear her laughter as it floated out from +the windows of the dainty little house of rose leaves. Now, all this +was very amusing for the Lady Whimsical, who was quite happy as long as +she had something to make her smile; but King Grumbelo was not so well +satisfied. + +It was not amusing to carry on a conversation entirely alone, and he +even began to wish secretly that the Lady Whimsical would not answer +all his questions by laughing at them. However, the Lady Whimsical +showed no signs of answering them in any other way, and at last the +King determined that he would make her speak to him just once, and +after that she might be as silent as she pleased. So, one morning, +when the dragon opened the apple-blossom gates to him as usual, he +strode up to Lady Whimsical with a resolute air. + +"Lady Whimsical, I want you to come away with me and be my Queen," he +said. + +She shook her head and smiled. + +"Why not?" demanded King Grumbelo. + +She smiled again. + +"Why not?" shouted King Grumbelo at the very top of his voice. + +When the Lady Whimsical shrugged her shoulders and merely smiled again, +the King lost his patience completely, which of course was an absurd +thing to do, considering that he had come all this way on purpose to +find some one who knew how to be silent. + +"Will nothing induce you to speak just one word to me?" he exclaimed; +and then he ran right away from her mocking laughter, and did not even +wait to have the rose-leaf door banged in his face. + +It was a very crestfallen King Grumbelo who knocked at the gates of +apple-blossom on the following morning. But no one was sitting on the +doorstep of the dainty little house of rose leaves; and King Grumbelo's +heart gave a great jump. + +"Where is she?" he demanded of the dragon, who had followed him along +the path and was looking at him with his aggravating smile. + +The dragon became reproachful. + +"It is your fault," he complained. "I told you she never spoke; why +did n't you listen to me? You have driven her away now by your endless +questions; she has gone into her house of rose leaves, and the Wise +Woman of the Wood alone knows what will bring her out again." + +King Grumbelo looked up at the dainty little house of rose leaves, and +thought he heard the sound of muffled laughter floating through the +open windows. He turned once more to the dragon. + +"Where does the Wise Woman of the Wood live?" he asked. But the dragon +had curled himself up in the sun and was already half asleep. + +"Don't ask so many questions," he mumbled sleepily; and King Grumbelo +strode angrily out of the garden. He mounted his horse and allowed it +to take him wherever it would, for he had no idea where the Wise Woman +of the Wood lived, and one way was as good as another. Towards +sundown, a blackbird hopped on to his horse's head and sang to him, and +something in its song so reminded the King of Lady Whimsical's laughter +that he put out his hand to caress it. No sooner did he touch it, +however, than it turned into a squirrel, and scampered away from him so +mischievously that he was again reminded of Lady Whimsical and of the +way she, too, had run away from him. He put spurs to his horse and +chased the squirrel until he overtook it, when it immediately turned +into a field mouse and sprang into a large hole in the root of an old +elm tree; and after it went King Grumbelo without a moment's +hesitation. He left his horse outside, and threw his crown on the +ground, and crept into the hole as humbly as though he had not been a +King at all. The hole opened into a long, dark passage which grew +smaller and smaller as it wound deeper into the earth, so that King +Grumbelo could scarcely drag himself along on his hands and knees. It +came to an end at last, however, and he crawled into a cavern lighted +dimly by glow-worms. The field mouse was just ahead of him, but before +he could catch it he found that it was no longer there, and in its +place stood a tall witch woman, with a voice like a blackbird's, and +eyes like a squirrel's, and hair the colour of a field mouse. + +"Tell me," said King Grumbelo, eagerly, "are you the Wise Woman of the +Wood?" + +"Of course I am," said the witch woman. "Do you think any one else +would have been so much trouble to catch? And now that you have caught +me, what can I do for you?" + +"I want you to remove the spell from the Lady Whimsical, so that she +may be able to speak to me," said King Grumbelo. The witch woman +laughed outright. + +"There is no spell over the Lady Whimsical," she said. "She can talk +as much as she pleases." + +"Then why has she never spoken to me?" asked the King in astonishment. + +"You wished for the most silent woman in the world," said the Wise +Woman of the Wood. "Now that you have found her, why do you complain?" + +For the first time in his life King Grumbelo felt distinctly foolish. + +"I made a mistake," he owned. "I don't want a silent Queen at all." + +"Then go back and tell her so," said the witch woman, promptly. + +"Do you think that will make her come out from her house of rose +leaves?" asked King Grumbelo. + +"I should n't wonder," said the Wise Woman of the Wood; "but go and see +for yourself. There is no need to thank me, for any one who takes the +trouble to follow the Wise Woman of the Wood to her home is welcome to +what he may find when he gets there." + +Indeed, before he had time to thank her he found himself once more +outside the tree, with his crown lying at his feet and his horse +standing at his side. He was in such a hurry to get back to the Lady +Whimsical, however, that he did not stay to pick up his crown, but rode +bareheaded all through the night and reached the hedge of sweet-briar +and honeysuckle precisely at two hours after sunrise. + +"Dear, dear," complained the dragon; "do you mean to say you 've come +back again?" + +"I have some good news for you," said King Grumbelo, jovially. "There +is no spell over the Lady Whimsical after all!" + +"Of course there is n't," said the dragon, as he slowly unfastened the +gates of apple-blossom. "Did n't I tell you she was n't a Princess?" + +King Grumbelo did not stay to argue the point with him, but walked +quickly up the path and stopped in front of the dainty little house all +made of rose leaves. + +"Lady Whimsical," he said, very gently and humbly, "will it please you +to smile on me once more? I have discovered that you are the wisest +person in the world, and that I am by far the most foolish." + +When the Lady Whimsical looked out of her window and saw the King +standing there so humbly without his crown, the tears came right into +her wonderful eyes and stayed there. + +"Oh!" she cried, "I am so glad you have come back! I was afraid you +were never coming back any more." + +She held out her two little hands, and the King kissed them. Then she +came running down the stairs as fast as she could; and they sat on the +doorstep side by side, and talked. + +"I feel as though I should never stop talking again! Do you mind?" +asked Lady Whimsical. + +"I should like nothing better," said King Grumbelo. "But first of all +I must confess to you that I have an extremely ugly name. Do you think +you can bear to hear it?" + +"I know it already!" laughed the Lady Whimsical. "Do you suppose I +have n't coaxed it out of my dragon long ago? But I, too, have +something to confess to you. Do you think it will make you angry?" + +"I am quite sure I shall never be angry again," declared the King. + +"Then," said Lady Whimsical, looking extremely solemn, "to begin with, +I am not a Princess at all." + +"As if I did n't know that!" laughed the King. "The dragon told me, +ever so long ago!" + +"He did n't tell you the rest, so stop laughing and listen to me," said +Lady Whimsical, with severity. "I knew all the while who you were and +what you wanted, and I pretended to be under a spell just to tease you." + +"I know that, too," said the King, triumphantly. "The Wise Woman of +the Wood told me." + +"Did she tell you that I came and hid myself here on purpose, because I +heard you were looking for a Princess and I wanted you to find me?" +asked the Lady Whimsical, softly. + +"Nobody told me that," answered King Grumbelo; "I guessed it for +myself." + +"What will the Professor of Practical Jokes say, when you come home +without the Princess you went out to find?" she asked mischievously. + +The King had no time to answer, for at that moment the Professor of +Practical Jokes--whose profession always required him to arrive +unexpectedly in places where he was not wanted--appeared at the +apple-blossom gates and answered Lady Whimsical's question himself. + +"There is nothing to say," he observed. "There never was a Princess +for your Majesty to find, so of course your Majesty has n't found her." + +"There never was anybody for you to find except me," added Lady +Whimsical, who was nodding at the Professor as though she had known him +all her life. "The other Princess was a practical joke, don't you see. +Do you mean to say my dragon did not tell you _that_, too?" + +"Then, who are you?" asked King Grumbelo in bewilderment. The Lady +Whimsical laughed, as she had laughed every day for a month when she +banged the door in the King's face. + +"Can't you guess?" she exclaimed. "Why, I am just the daughter of the +Professor of Practical Jokes!" + +And the King only wondered that he had not guessed it long ago. + +As they went out through the apple-blossom gates, the dainty little +house of rose leaves vanished away because it was no longer wanted, and +so did the beautiful flower-garden, and the hedge of sweet-briar and +honeysuckle, and the sleepy good-natured dragon. They had no trouble +in getting home, for the Wise Woman of the Wood had a hand in the +matter, and the road came racing towards them as fast as an express +train; all they had to do was to stand quite still and wait until King +Grumbelo's country came hurrying along, which was the most convenient +way of travelling any one could possibly invent. When the city reached +them they found they were just in time to be married, for the people +were on the point of celebrating their wedding for the hundred and +first time; so the King and Queen were married almost before they knew +it themselves, and certainly before the people discovered that somebody +was really being married at last. This, however, was not at all +surprising, for the real wedding was very much the same as all the +make-believe ones, except that it took a little longer because the King +and Queen were not so used to being married as the people were to +marrying them. + +After that, every one was as happy as it was possible to be. The +country had grown so accustomed to being frivolous that it never became +serious again; and the King never made another law, because the people +were so fond of Lady Whimsical that they did everything she told them, +and therefore no laws were needed. The result of all this happiness +was that nobody in the kingdom ever grew old; and the Lady Whimsical +who sits and laughs on her throne at this very moment is the same Lady +Whimsical who sat and laughed on the doorstep of her rose-leaf house, +years and years and years ago. + + + + +[Illustration: THE LADY EMMELINA IS ALWAYS KEPT IN HER PROPER PLACE NOW] + + + + +The Doll that came straight from Fairyland + +The country was celebrating the tenth birthday of the Prince +Perfection. That particular country always celebrated the tenth +birthday of its princes and princesses, but never before had it gone so +completely wild with joy. The fireworks began punctually at sunrise, +and so did everything else that was worth beginning; and the happy +shouts of the people made conversation quite impossible, except in the +royal family, which was fully accustomed to being shouted at whenever +the country had a whole holiday. The Prince had five hundred and +fifty-four birthday presents, and his Secretaries spent all their +summer holidays in writing letters to acknowledge them; and every child +in the kingdom who was of the same age as the Prince was allowed to +come to the palace gates and receive a royal smile and a large box of +barley sugar from Prince Perfection himself. In the afternoon, the +Prince drove through the streets over a carpet of flowers and smiled +without stopping; and by his side sat the little Princess Pansy, who +was not smiling at all, for she had no birthday and no presents, and +two years was a long time to wait before she, too, should be ten years +old. Still, she was so fond of the Prince Perfection that she would +not have let him guess for a moment that she felt envious of him, +although this he was in no danger of doing, for he was so brimful of +happiness that he had no time to think about his sister at all. Truly, +it is worth while to be ten years old if one is a Prince! In the +evening there was a banquet of a hundred and twenty courses, which was +the exact number of months in the Prince's life; and the two children +sat at the head of the table between their royal parents, and managed +to keep awake until the moment arrived to cut the birthday cake. + +That was when the catastrophe occurred. At the moment nobody suspected +that it was going to be a catastrophe at all. It seemed the most +fortunate thing in the world that the Prince's godmother, the Fairy +Zigzag, should manage to arrive just in time to drink her godson's +health. Most people would think that a catastrophe was far more likely +to have occurred if the King and Queen had forgotten to invite the +Fairy Zigzag. That only shows how little most of us know about fairy +godmothers. The truth is that the Fairy Zigzag was not like other +godmothers at all. She did not like banquets and she did not like +noise; and she would much sooner have sent her present by post. It +would never have done, however, to refuse the Queen's invitation, for +that is what no fairy godmother has ever been known to do; so she came +at the very last minute with a very bad grace, and she meant to go away +again as soon as she could. + +Bang! What a noise she made as she came down the chimney in a cloud of +blue smoke! If she had not been quite so cross she would have arrived +through the window in her best chariot drawn by sea-gulls; but she was +determined to take as little trouble as possible over the matter, and +no one could take less trouble over anything than to come straight down +the chimney. + +"Oh!" said every one with a little scream; and the Prince was so +startled that he cut an extremely crooked slice of cake. As soon as +the blue smoke cleared away, however, and he saw that it was his fairy +godmother, he recovered his good manners without any difficulty, and +walked across the room to greet her. + +"I am delighted to see you, dear godmother," said Prince Perfection +with his best birthday smile, which he had been saving up all day on +purpose. "Would you like to have a piece of cake?" + +His parents beamed with pleasure at the charming manners of Prince +Perfection; and the little Princess rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, +and wondered how long it would take to live through two whole years, so +that she might have a birthday party and a birthday cake, and a visit +from her fairy godmother. The Fairy Zigzag, however, did not seem at +all impressed by the charming manners of her godson. + +"I never eat cake," she said, without giving so much as a look at the +crooked slice of cake which the Prince was handing her on a real gold +plate. Her godson put down the cake immediately, and took up a silver +goblet filled to the brim with sparkling ginger-beer. + +"You have come just in time, dear godmother, to drink my health," he +said, just as politely as ever. + +"I never drink healths," said the Fairy Zigzag, frowning. "I have +plenty of my own, thank you. What's the matter with your health that +you want every one to drink it up? You 'd better keep it: it may come +in useful, later on." + +This was such an entirely new view of the matter that a complete +silence fell on every one in the room; and all the guests put down +their glasses of ginger beer, and stared into them to see if the +Prince's health was floating about on the top. In the midst of the +pause, the Fairy Zigzag stalked to the table, nodded to the royal +parents, and took the seat that had been reserved for her at the +Queen's right hand. + +"So good of you to come," murmured the Queen, nervously. "We never +thought you would give us so great a pleasure." + +"Oh, didn't you? Then, why did you invite me?" snapped the fairy +godmother. The Queen said nothing, for she did not know what to say. +The King did his best to put matters right. + +"The Prince has been looking forward to your visit all day," he +hastened to say. "The dear boy has hardly known how to wait until this +evening." + +"Rubbish," said the Fairy Zigzag, laughing most unpleasantly. "It is +quite time for the dear boy to be in bed. What is that other child +doing, over there?" + +She pointed with her wand at the little Princess Pansy, whose eyes were +now so full of sleep that she could hardly keep them open. When, +however, she saw the Fairy Zigzag pointing at her, she instantly became +wide awake, and grew quite pink with pleasure at being noticed. It was +the first time any one had noticed her all that day; but of course, one +must expect to be forgotten when it is somebody else's birthday. + +"Oh!" cried Princess Pansy, holding out both her hands to the cross old +Fairy Zigzag. "Are you really a fairy godmother? I have never seen a +real fairy before, and I am so glad you have come!" + +The King and Queen were horrified at the familiar way in which the +little Princess was speaking to such an important guest as the fairy +godmother. It was true that she was only eight years old, but it was +quite time she learnt some of the charming manners for which her +brother the Prince was so remarkable. If the Fairy Zigzag had turned +her into a toad, or a marble statue, or something chilly like that, +they would not have been in the least surprised. But the Fairy Zigzag +did nothing of the sort. She just took the two hands the Princess +Pansy held out to her, and looked her full in the face; and directly +she did that all the crossness faded out of her own, and instead of +being just a disagreeable old fairy she suddenly appeared quite +good-natured and pleasant. This, indeed, was no wonder; for it would +have been difficult to look at the little Princess without feeling +happier for it. The King and Queen, however, mistook her silence for +anger. + +"Pray forgive her," they said, tremblingly. "She is so young, and she +doesn't know any better. We have tried in vain to teach her good +manners. Doubtless, when she is as old as the Prince Perfection she +will have learnt to be as polite as he is." + +"It is to be hoped not," said the Fairy Zigzag, turning once more to +the royal parents. "And if I know anything about it, she will never be +as polite as the Prince Perfection. That child is a real child, and +none of us will ever make her anything else. Now, I don't mean to +waste any more time; so come here, godson, and tell me what you would +like for a birthday present." + +The Prince Perfection did not know what to say. He longed to ask for a +steamboat that went by real steam, or a cannon that would fire real +gunpowder, or a balloon that would take him wherever he wished to go; +but he felt that only an ordinary boy would have asked for such things +as these, and Prince Perfection had always been told by his nurses that +he was not an ordinary boy. + +"Please give me whatever you like, dear godmother," he said, and hoped +very much that it would be a steamboat with real steam. + +"The dear boy does not like to appear greedy," said the Queen. + +"Fiddlesticks!" said the Fairy Zigzag, and then she pointed again at +the little Princess Pansy. "If I were to give _you_ a present, do you +think you would know what to choose?" she asked her, smiling. + +"Oh, how beautiful!" exclaimed Princess Pansy, clapping her hands. To +have a present without a birthday was more than she had ever believed +possible. + +"What will you have?" asked the Fairy, raising her wand. The Princess +did not stop to think. + +"I will have a wax doll, please, with blue eyes and yellow hair and +pink cheeks, dressed in a white silk frock with lots of little frills," +she said, rapidly. "And, if you _could_ manage it," she added, +glancing sideways at the Prince, her brother, "I think I should like +one that doesn't melt when you put it near the fire." + +"I think I can manage it," said the Fairy Zigzag, and down came her +wand with a sharp tap on the table. Princess Pansy gave a cry of +delight. In front of her lay the most beautiful wax doll any little +girl of eight years old has ever possessed. She had blue eyes and +yellow curls and pink cheeks; she was dressed in a white silk frock +with rows and rows of little frills; she had a gold crown perched on +her head, and she wore high-heeled shoes on her dainty feet; she had a +real pocket with a real lace handkerchief sticking out of it; she +carried a fan in one hand and a scent bottle in the other; and she +actually possessed real six-buttoned gloves, which could be drawn on +and off her little hands. Princess Pansy was breathless. She had +never seen anything so beautiful before. + +"You must thank the Fairy Zigzag," whispered the King and Queen. The +little Princess gave a sigh and looked up; it seemed so stupid to say +"Thank you" for such a superb dolly as hers. After all, she had to say +nothing whatever, for the Fairy Zigzag was no longer there; she had +gone away without a chariot, or a cloud of blue smoke, or even a bang! + +"She has given nothing to her godson," said the courtiers to one +another; and they fully expected that Prince Perfection would fly into +a passion. However, Prince Perfection did not fly into a passion. He +looked at the little Princess as she laughed with joy over her +beautiful new doll; he thought just once of the steamboat that would +have gone by real steam, and the cannon that would have fired real +gunpowder, and the balloon that would have taken him wherever he wished +to go; and then he remembered that he was ten years old and a Prince, +and he flung back his head and began to whistle. + +"It doesn't matter," he said, indifferently. "I have five hundred and +fifty-four presents upstairs, and I don't care for dolls." + +Little Princess Pansy had never been so contented in the whole of her +life. The palace seemed a different place to her, now that it +contained the doll that had come from Fairyland; and she immediately +named her the Lady Emmelina, which was the most important name she +could remember on the spur of the moment. From that day the Princess +and her doll were never separated. When the Prince and Princess went +for a drive, the Lady Emmelina sat up stiffly between them; when the +Professors came to give the children their lessons, they found that +they had to give them also to a little lady in a white silk frock with +rows and rows of little frills, who stared at them solemnly with her +large, impassive blue eyes, and never answered a word to any of their +questions. Princess Pansy no longer wished to be ten years old; she no +longer wished for anything: she had everything she wanted in the +unchangeable Lady Emmelina. For the Lady Emmelina never varied; the +Princess might have as many moods as she pleased, but the Lady Emmelina +merely smiled. For a constant companion, it would have been difficult +to find any one more delightful than the Lady Emmelina. The Prince +Perfection, however, took a very different view of the matter. Thanks +to the Lady Emmelina, he had no one to play with. He had never been +left so much to himself in his life, and in spite of his excellent +opinion of himself he found himself extremely dull. He could no longer +play cricket, since the Princess was not there to bowl for him; it was +no fun to play at soldiers if the Princess was not there to be on the +losing side; he could not pretend to be the Royal Executioner if the +Princess was not there to be executed. To be sure, he had five hundred +and fifty-four birthday presents; but what consolation could they +afford him when he was still without a steamboat that went by real +steam? The Lady Emmelina was the cause of all his misfortunes, and he +could not bear the Lady Emmelina. It was the Lady Emmelina who had +come in the place of his real steamboat and his real cannon and his +real balloon; it was the Lady Emmelina who had bewitched the little +Princess, his sister, and robbed him of his best playfellow. And the +Prince Perfection, whatever his faults were, was extremely fond of the +little Princess. + +"If you will come and play cricket with me, I will let you have the +first innings," he said to her in despair one sunny afternoon. + +"It is far too rough a game for the Lady Emmelina," answered Princess +Pansy, shaking her head. + +"Then choose any game you like, only do come and play with me," begged +the Prince. He had never had to beg so hard for anything before, for +the little Princess had been his willing slave as long as he could +remember. + +"We cannot possibly come this afternoon," answered Princess Pansy. +"The Lady Emmelina is going to have a tea-party. I will ask her to +invite you if you like." + +The Prince, however, would have nothing to do with Lady Emmelina's +tea-party. He went and sat by the pond instead, and thought how fine +his steamboat would have looked if it had gone puffing across the water +with real smoke coming out of the funnel. The mere thought of it made +him dislike the Lady Emmelina so much more than before that he made up +his mind to be revenged on her. Now, this was an extremely bold thing +even to think about, for she had come straight from Fairyland, and it +is never safe to meddle with toys that have come straight from +Fairyland. For all that, the Prince crept into the nursery that very +same night, when everyone in the palace was asleep, and prepared to +have his revenge on the waxen Lady Emmelina. There she sat in all her +magnificence on the nursery table, with both her gloves tightly +buttoned, and both her pointed toes turned upwards. The very sight of +her annoyed the jealous little Prince. He pattered across the floor on +his bare feet, and seized the Lady Emmelina by the arm. She greeted +him with a shrill and angry shriek. + +"How dare you? Let me go at once!" she screamed. The Prince was so +surprised that he dropped her on the table again. The Lady Emmelina, +shaking all over with fury, began smoothing out her rows of crumpled +frills. + +"The idea of such a thing!" she gasped. "I declare, you have actually +pushed my crown on one side, and there is no looking-glass in the room. +I have a great mind to report you to Fairyland." + +"You may do what you like," answered the Prince, who was no coward and +had recovered from his astonishment. "You have bewitched the Princess +Pansy, and I mean to hide you where no one will be able to find you." + +No sooner had he uttered these words than the Lady Emmelina turned +extremely pale. If he had tried to melt her at the fire or to cut off +her head with the scissors, which was the kind of thing he usually did +to his sister's dolls, she knew that she would have been safe; but he +had threatened to do the one thing that even the fairies who protected +her could not prevent him from doing. Her only hope was that he would +hide her somewhere so that she should have time to escape before +sunrise; for after sunrise all her powers of moving or speaking would +desert her and she would be nothing but a wax doll again. She need not +have been afraid, for the Prince did not mean to waste any more time +than he could help; and the next moment she was being carried swiftly +out of the room under his arm. Downstairs ran the little Prince, with +his hand over the Lady Emmelina's mouth to prevent her from screaming; +and along the marble passages he hastened, until he came to a little +door that led into the garden, and this he unlocked with the diamond +key that usually hung on the nail on the nursery wall. It is not +pleasant to run without shoes along a gravel path, and Prince +Perfection soon turned aside on to the lawn, and trotted over the grass +in search of a hiding place for the Lady Emmelina. A large white stone +lay in the middle of the lawn and gleamed in the moonlight. The Prince +did not remember having seen it there before; indeed, it was not likely +that the royal gardeners would have allowed it to remain in such a +place for a moment. He stooped down and rolled it on one side, and +found that it covered a neat round hole lined with green moss. It was +the very place for the Lady Emmelina; and he laid her gently in the +very middle of it. + +"I hope you will not be very cramped," said Prince Perfection, politely. + +Lady Emmelina lay motionless on the mossy ground, and stared at the +moon. No one would have thought that she was the same dolly who had +screamed so angrily in the nursery ten minutes ago. + +"It is the nicest place I could have found in the whole garden," +continued Prince Perfection a little anxiously. After all, she was a +very beautiful doll, and she had come straight from Fairyland. + +Still the Lady Emmelina stared intently at the moon, with her large +blue eyes. + +"I should never have thought of putting you anywhere if you had not +bewitched the Princess," declared Prince Perfection, feeling still more +uncomfortable. It was not easy to go on apologising to some one who +persisted in staring at the moon just as though no one was speaking to +her. + +"Why did you bewitch the Princess Pansy?" cried the little Prince. "If +you will promise not to bewitch her any more, I will take you straight +back to the nursery." + +But although he waited eagerly for her answer, not a word came from the +Lady Emmelina; and the Prince ceased to feel sorry for her, and gave up +apologising. + +"It is your own fault, and I don't care a bit," he said, impatiently; +and he rolled the large white stone over the hole, until the doll from +Fairyland was completely hidden. It is a wonder the fairies did not +interfere; but perhaps they had their reasons. + +There was no peace for any one in the palace when the Princess +discovered that the Lady Emmelina was gone; and she discovered it +before breakfast the very next morning. It was in vain that the Prince +offered to give her his five hundred and fifty-four birthday presents +if she would only stop crying: the Princess wanted her doll from +Fairyland, and nothing but her doll from Fairyland would console her. +Every one who loved the little Princess--and that was every one in the +palace--began looking for the Lady Emmelina; but no one succeeded in +finding a trace of her. This, however, was by no means so surprising +as it sounds, for the large white stone was no longer in the middle of +the lawn, and the neat round hole lined with green moss had disappeared +just as completely. The Prince was no less unhappy than his sister. +Nothing was turning out as he had expected; for, instead of being ready +to play with him again, the little Princess was far too miserable to +think of playing at all. He tried all day long to coax her into a good +humour; but bedtime came, and he had not won a single smile from her. +It was then that he made up his mind to go out into the world and find +the Lady Emmelina. So that night the Prince once more unhooked the +diamond key from the nail on the nursery wall, and stole into the +garden in the moonlight. This time, however, he had not forgotten to +put on his shoes and stockings and his second-best court suit, for when +a prince goes out into the world he must at least do his best to look +like a prince. When he came to the lawn he stopped and stared with +amazement; for there, in the moonlight, lay the large white stone under +which he had hidden the doll from Fairyland. Overjoyed at reaching the +end of his journey so soon, he ran forward and rolled the stone on one +side. There, to be sure, was the neat round hole lined with green +moss; but in the middle of it sat a large grasshopper, and not a sign +of the Lady Emmelina was to be seen. + +The Prince was so disappointed that he had the greatest difficulty in +remembering that he was ten years old, and that crying was therefore +out of the question. The grasshopper was winking at him as though he +understood how he felt. + +"I guessed you would come," he said, in a kind voice. "I just waited +on purpose." + +"Where has she gone?" asked Prince Perfection, dolefully. + +"Ask me something easier than that," answered the grasshopper. "I +didn't see her go. I happened to look in as I was passing; and when I +found she was gone I thought I'd just wait and tell you she was gone, +don't you see?" + +"What is the good of waiting to tell me something I could have found +out for myself?" asked Prince Perfection. "If you can't help me to +find her, you might just as well not be there." + +"I didn't say I couldn't help you to find her," said the grasshopper, +looking hurt; "though if you are going to be cross about it I don't +know that I will." + +"Oh," cried Prince Perfection, "I will never be cross again, if you +will help me to find the Lady Emmelina." + +"Then why did you hide her in the first place?" asked the grasshopper. +The Prince looked foolish. + +"Because I had no one to play with," he said. + +"If you do find her," continued the grasshopper, "do you think the +Princess will play with you again?" + +"Oh, no," sighed the Prince. "She will only want to play with the Lady +Emmelina." + +"Then don't try to find the Lady Emmelina," said the grasshopper, +promptly. + +"I must," said Prince Perfection. "Anything is better than seeing the +Princess cry. I took her doll away, you see, and it is my fault that +Pansy is so unhappy. I don't mean to go home again until I have found +the Lady Emmelina." + +"Right you are," said the grasshopper. "You're the man for me. I'll +help you as far as I can, but you must come down here first; I can't go +on shouting like this." + +"Down there?" said the Prince. "The hole is much too small." + +"Nonsense! Come and try," said the grasshopper, and indeed, before he +tried at all, the Prince found himself inside the neat round hole, with +the mossy walls reaching far above his head, and the grasshopper +shaking hands with him. + +"Feel all right?" asked the grasshopper. "Sit down and get your +breath. These sudden changes are apt to be exhausting if you are not +used to them." + +"Are you used to them?" asked the Prince, when he had recovered enough +breath to speak. + +"Dear me, yes!" said the grasshopper with a chuckle. "When I get up in +the morning I never know how many changes I may not have to go through +before the day is over. Don't think I am complaining though, for of +course it is part of my profession." + +"What is your profession?" asked the Prince. + +"Chief Spy in Particular to the Fairy Queen," answered the grasshopper. +"It's very hard work, I can tell you; some days I haven't a moment to +myself. Of course, I find out a great deal that nobody else knows, +which is always amusing. Yesterday, for instance, if I hadn't been a +cockchafer, a doll's teapot, a garden seat, a rose tree and a nursery +table, I shouldn't know as much as I do about you and the Lady +Emmelina." + +"Then please tell me what I must do in order to find the Lady +Emmelina," begged the Prince. + +"By all means," said the grasshopper, cheerfully. "Go straight on +without turning to the right or the left; and whenever some one greets +you, ask him politely to give you what he is thinking about, and then +you will be able to find the Lady Emmelina." + +It seemed rather a roundabout way of finding anything; but, as the +grasshopper disappeared directly he had finished speaking, there was +nothing to do but to follow his advice. The first part was easy +enough, for just in front of him the Prince noticed a little door in +the green mossy wall, which he was quite sure had not been there +before; and through this he straightway walked. He immediately found +himself in a blaze of sunshine on the sea-shore, with green waves +stretching before him as far as he could see, and nothing on either +side of him except the flat stony beach. "It's all very well to tell +any one to go straight on, but how am I to get across the sea?" thought +the Prince. He had never been afraid of anything in his life, however, +so he ran down the beach and put one foot into the white foam at the +edge. + +"Good-day to you!" said a voice. "Who are you, and what do you want?" + +"I am Prince Perfection, and I want what you are thinking about," +answered the Prince, boldly, although he could not see who was speaking. + +"That is a strange thing to want," said the voice; "for I was just +thinking about a little steamboat that would go by real steam; and how +you can possibly want such a thing as that is more than I can +understand." + +At that moment there was a faint puffing sound in the distance, which +came nearer and nearer; and presently over the waves rode a most +perfect little steamboat, with real smoke coming out of the funnel. It +was just large enough for the Prince, and he stepped on board directly +it came near enough, and put his hand on the little brass wheel. + +"Thank you very much," he said as loudly as he could, in the hope that +the owner of the mysterious voice would hear him. Nobody answered him; +but he wondered why an old crab, who was shuffling along the beach, +chose that particular moment to wink at him. + +Certainly, no one has ever reached the shore on the opposite side of +the sea so quickly as Prince Perfection in his real steamboat. It was +a pleasure to hear it puff as it cut through the big green waves; and +he stood like a real captain with his hand on the little brass wheel, +and steered it right into a bay that seemed waiting on purpose for it. +It was very sad that it should disappear directly he stepped out of it; +but as it had come from nowhere at all because he wanted it, he could +not complain because it went back to nowhere at all when he had done +with it. So he sighed twice, and then walked straight ahead as before, +up the beach and over a flat grassy plain, covered with yellow poppies +and gorse bushes and purple heather. Nothing could have been easier +than this; and Prince Perfection had not the slightest wish to turn to +the right or the left, until he came suddenly upon a thick clump of +gorse bushes which lay in the very middle of his path. He made two +attempts to clamber over it; but, each time, he was caught in the gorse +bushes and was scratched all over; and even if one is ten years old and +a prince, it is hard to bear being scratched all over by a gorse bush. +Prince Perfection began to wonder if it would be very wrong to follow +the path to the right until he should come to an opening, but before he +had time to decide such a difficult question a shrill voice broke the +silence once more. + +"Good-day to you," it said. "Who are you, and what do you want?" + +"I am Prince Perfection, and I want what you are thinking about," +answered the Prince, boldly. + +"How ridiculous!" laughed the voice. "Why, I am thinking about a +cannon, a real cannon that will fire real gunpowder. Surely, you can +want nothing so useless as that?" + +"Indeed, I do," said the Prince; and there stood the most perfect +little real cannon, loaded with real shot, and in his hand was a +lighted match ready to fire it with. He lost no time in pointing it +straight at the clump of furze bushes, and the real gunpowder made a +flash and a splutter, and the shot went right into the middle of the +yellow gorse and blew it all away so completely that not a trace of it +was left, except one small bush that the Prince had no difficulty in +jumping over. The cannon went back to nowhere at all, just as the +steamboat had done. + +"Thank you very much," said the Prince Perfection as loudly as he +could; and again no one answered him. He was much surprised, however, +when he looked back and found that the gorse bush had disappeared as +soon as he had jumped over it. After that he walked on for a long way; +and just as he was beginning to feel tired, and the sun was beginning +to think about setting, he tumbled right up against a big iceberg. It +is not usual for icebergs to drop down suddenly in the middle of the +road, but that is what this particular iceberg did, and that is why the +Prince tumbled against it. + +"Dear me," sighed Prince Perfection, for even a prince's legs are not +very long when he is only ten years old, and it is not pleasant to have +to climb an iceberg at the end of a long walk. There was no help for +it, however, for there was the iceberg waiting to be climbed; so the +little Prince went straight at it as bravely as he could. Any one who +is accustomed to climbing icebergs will at once know how difficult +Prince Perfection found it; and he tried seven times without being able +to get up a single yard of it. + +"Good-day to you," said a voice, which sounded as though it came from +the very middle of the iceberg. "Who are you, and what do you want?" + +"I am so glad you have come!" exclaimed the Prince; although, for that +matter, no one had come at all. "I am Prince Perfection, and I want +what you are thinking about." + +"There certainly is no accounting for tastes," observed the voice. "I +was just thinking about a real balloon that would take me wherever I +wanted to go; and what use that would be to you I cannot imagine." + +The Prince did not trouble to explain what use it would be to him, for +at that very instant the balloon floated down towards him, and he +stepped into it as a matter of course. It was far more beautiful than +anything he had ever been able to imagine, however; and the movement of +it was so delicious that he fell sound asleep the moment it began to +carry him upwards; and he could not keep awake long enough even to +thank the sender of it. When he awoke, he was lying on the grass under +a silver birch tree, and in front of him was a red brick fort with +battlements and a drawbridge. It was so like the fort in which he kept +all his tin soldiers in the nursery at home that he was not at all +surprised when a sentinel without a head came out in answer to his +knock. He remembered melting off the head of that particular tin +soldier only two days before, and he was much relieved when he showed +no signs of recognising him. As the poor tin fellow had no head, this +was hardly to be wondered at. + +"Make haste, and let down the drawbridge," said the Prince, banging +away at the wooden gate with his fists; "I want to see if the Lady +Emmelina is inside." + +He thought he could do what he liked with his own property, but the +soldier without a head was evidently of another opinion. He did not +attempt to let down the drawbridge, and he answered the Prince in a +rhyme which he seemed to have made up for the occasion: + + "What a ridiculous clatter + Over _such_ a small matter! + I was peacefully napping + When you came with your tapping; + You are vastly mistaken + If you think I've forsaken + My official position + Because no physician + Could give me a cranium + Like a pot of geranium. + And these are my orders-- + No one passes these borders + Unless he is able, + In song, rhyme, or fable, + The real, true intention + Of his coming to mention!" + + +To be sure, it was not much of a rhyme, but it was not bad for a +soldier who had no head. When he had finished it he went away again, +and the Prince sat down disconsolately under the silver birch tree. He +felt more convinced than before that the Lady Emmelina was inside the +fort; but although he thought as much as most people would over an +ordinary arithmetic lesson, he could not think of a single rhyme. + +"Good-day to you," said a voice that seemed to come from the very top +of the birch tree. "Who are you, and what do you want?" + +"I am Prince Perfection, and I want what you are thinking about," +answered the Prince, although he hardly hoped, this time, that he would +get what he wanted. + +"Do you really mean it?" remarked the voice. "I was just composing a +song about a charming little lady in a white silk frock, who lives +behind that drawbridge over there. It is not very likely you can want +that!" + +"Hurrah!" shouted the little Prince, standing on his head for joy. +"Then, it is the Lady Emmelina!" + +"The fact is," continued the voice, without noticing the interruption, +"I always make poetry when there is nothing else to do. So does the +tin soldier. He can't help it, poor fellow, because he has lost his +head, you see. If you have lost your head you cannot be expected to +make anything except poetry." + +"Have you lost your head, too, may I ask?" said the Prince, as politely +as he could put such an awkward question. + +"For the time being I have no head to lose," answered the voice. "That +is how I happened to be inventing a song just as you came by. Are you +sure there is nothing else you would like better? A nightmare, for +instance, or a thunder-storm?" + +The Prince was sure he would like nothing better; and the voice in the +birch tree sang him the following song, very softly: + + "Here I've come as I was bidden + To seek the dolly you have hidden-- + The dolly with the yellow hair, + With cheeks so pink and eyes so fair, + With hands that move and feet that stand-- + The doll that came from Fairyland. + + "Do you pretend you've never seen her, + The dainty Lady Emmelina? + I pray you let the drawbridge down, + I'm ten years old and I can frown! + I mean to find her--here's my hand! + I want the doll from Fairyland. + + "The song I'm singing--let me mention-- + Is not a song of my invention; + It comes like steamboats sometimes do, + Like real balloons and cannons too; + It comes like all that's real and grand, + All the way from Fairyland!" + + +"Why," said Prince Perfection, "one would almost think you had made up +the song on purpose for me!" + +What the birch tree thought about it has never been known, for when the +little Prince looked up again it had gone away to nowhere at all. + +The soldier without a head let the drawbridge down, when he heard the +song that had come all the way from Fairyland. The Prince did not stop +to thank him, but hastened into the fort and looked round anxiously for +the Lady Emmelina. He had very little difficulty in finding her, +however, for she occupied nearly the whole of the ground floor. She +was sitting up against the wall, supported on one side by an ambulance +waggon, and on the other by a camp-fire which, strange to say, had not +even singed her elegant fan, although it burned with the brightest of +red and yellow flames. + +"There you are! Will you come home with me?" said the Prince, rather +nervously; for he was not much bigger than she was, now, and he was a +little afraid lest she should have unpleasant recollections of the neat +round hole lined with green moss. To his relief, she seemed quite glad +to see him. + +"To be sure I will," said the Lady Emmelina. "I should not be fit to +be seen if I stayed much longer in this dusty old place!" + +So they went home together, and of course that did not take them long, +for the way home is always the shortest way in the world. To begin +with, the balloon was waiting for them as they came out of the fort; +and it carried them all the way to the sea-shore before they had time +to notice that they were in a balloon at all. When they reached the +sea-shore they found that the steamboat was waiting for them, too; and +the steamboat landed them on the opposite side of the sea even before +they knew that they had stepped out of the balloon; and after that the +Prince never knew what did happen, for the next thing he noticed was +that he had grown to his proper size again, and was standing once more +in the royal nursery with the Lady Emmelina tucked under his arm. +There at the table in the middle of the room sat the little Princess +Pansy, and in front of her was a large bowl of bread and milk. + +"Oh! Oh! You have come back at last!" cried the Princess, jumping +down from her chair. "I am so glad, I am so glad!" + +"I thought you would be glad to see her again," said Prince Perfection, +and he handed her the doll from Fairyland. + +"I didn't mean _that_!" exclaimed the little Princess. And then, sad +as it is to relate, they both forgot all about the Lady Emmelina; and +the next minute, she found herself lying face downwards on the floor, +while the Prince and Princess hugged each other. And it was of no use +for the royal nurses to talk about bread and milk, for not a thing +would the two children touch until they had talked as much as they +wanted. + +"You will not cry any more, now that you have the Lady Emmelina to play +with, will you?" said Prince Perfection, who, strange to say, did not +feel in the least bit jealous of the Lady Emmelina as long as she lay +face downwards on the floor. + +"I don't think I want to play with the Lady Emmelina much," answered +Princess Pansy. "I think I would rather play with you. It has been so +dull while you have been away." For, although the Prince did not know +it, he had been away for a whole month. + +"I am delighted to hear it," cried the little Prince. "Let us play at +Royal Executioner, and _you_ shall be executioner." + +"Oh, no," said the little Princess. "I would _much_ sooner be +executed." + +As they disputed the point politely, the grasshopper suddenly jumped in +at the window and nodded at them. + +"Good-day to you," he said. "I was just thinking at that moment about +a steamboat and a cannon and a real balloon. Strange, wasn't it?" + +Immediately the Prince found a steamboat in his right hand and a cannon +in his left; while outside the window floated a charming balloon, just +large enough for himself and Princess Pansy. + +"Wait a minute," cried the Prince, as the grasshopper jumped on to the +window-sill again. "I want to tell you all about--" + +"No need to do that," chuckled the grasshopper. "You don't suppose +I've been a crab and a gorse bush and an iceberg and a silver birch +tree for nothing, do you?" + +That time he really hopped away to nowhere at all, and the children +have never seen him since. This does not matter in the least, however, +for they are not likely to want his help again; the Lady Emmelina is +always kept in her proper place now, and the Princess is no longer +bewitched by her. It is only reasonable to suppose that the Fairy +Zigzag had something to do with the change in the Lady Emmelina, but +the Fairy Zigzag says that she never troubled herself about it at all. +However that may be, the children have never had an unhappy moment +since Prince Perfection went out into the world to find the doll that +came straight from Fairyland. + + + + +[Illustration: "WILL YOU COME AND PLAY WITH ME, LITTLE WISDOM?"] + + + + +THOSE WYMPS AGAIN + +There was great consternation in Fairyland, for it was suddenly +discovered that the sun had been shining crookedly all the morning. It +was consequently two hours later than anybody thought it was; and this, +as it happened, was a very serious matter, for all the fairies had been +invited to the christening of the little Prince Charming, and it would +never do for them to arrive late. Of course, the wymps were at the +bottom of it and the sun had no idea that he was not shining quite in +his usual way; but no one in Fairyland had time to trouble about that, +and, without waiting even for the butterflies to be harnessed, away +flew all the fairies in a regular scurry. Now, even fairies are apt to +do stupid things sometimes, especially when they are flustered and the +wymps have been at work; so there may be some excuse for what they did +on that particular morning. The fact is, they were so anxious to +arrive in time to give their christening presents to the royal baby, +that when they met a christening party coming along the road they never +stopped to see whether it was the right christening party or not, but +just flew down and presented their gifts to the baby, one after +another, as fast as they could speak. + +"I give you beauty," said one. "And I, thoughtfulness," said another. +"And I, wisdom," said a third. "And I, patience," said a fourth. "And +I, contentment," said a fifth; and so on, until all the gifts of +Fairyland had been given to the baby in the nurse's arms. Then, when +they had quite finished speaking, the poor, flurried little fairies +discovered that the baby was the daughter of a poor peasant and his +wife, while Prince Charming lived in quite another country, a very long +way off. It was a great calamity, no doubt, but nothing could be done, +for the fairies had no more gifts left; so they returned very sadly to +Fairyland, and hoped that the wymps would not find it out. Of course, +the wymps did find it out, for they had arranged the whole thing from +the very beginning. Still, the wymps are not nearly so bad as they +pretend to be; and when they had finished laughing over their joke they +did their best to make things right again by going in large numbers to +Prince Charming's christening. They behaved very noisily when they got +there; and they ate every bit of the christening cake and ended in +giving the baby Prince the only nice gift the wymps have the power to +give; and that is the nicest gift in the world, for it is called +Laughter. To be sure, there had never been such a topsy-turvey +christening party before; but all the guests enjoyed it thoroughly, and +that cannot be said of all the parties to which the fairies are +invited. The Fairy Queen could not help smiling when she heard what +happened. "Never mind!" she said. "Some day, Prince Charming shall +have all the gifts of Fairyland, too. Meanwhile, he has something far +better than we should have given him." + +The peasant's daughter grew up as beautiful and as wise as all the +gifts of Fairyland could make her. Everything she did was as well done +as the cleverest people in the world, all put together, could have done +it; and everything she said was as wise as the contents of all the +books in the King's library. When she cooked the Sunday dinner, she +made it taste like a banquet of twenty courses; she had only to look at +the flowers in the garden, and they bloomed as luxuriantly as though +they had been brought straight from Fairyland. She helped all the +village people when they were in a difficulty, for her advice was the +very best that could be had; and they soon forgot that she was only a +child, and they called her "Little Wisdom" instead of the ordinary name +by which she had been christened. She loved to sit by herself in the +cherry orchard, and she wondered how the other children could laugh and +play when there was so much thinking to be done. She never laughed nor +played herself, for the fairies had been so anxious to make her wise +and beautiful, that they had not thought of giving her anything so +ordinary as happiness. Every one envied her parents for having such a +wonderful daughter; but for all that the peasant and his wife were not +satisfied. + +"It is a great pity," grumbled her father, "that all the gifts of +Fairyland should have been wasted on a girl. If the child had been a +boy, now, she would have made some stir in the world." + +"For my part," sighed her mother, "I would gladly see her lose all the +gifts of Fairyland if she would only laugh and cry like other children." + +In the meantime the little Prince Charming was growing up without the +help of a single gift from Fairyland. Never had the palace contained +such an idle, careless little Prince; he laughed at everything that +happened, morning, noon, and night; he played tricks on all his +Professors instead of learning his lessons, and he could not keep grave +long enough even to say the alphabet. He was so determined to look on +the bright side of everything, that when people were angry with him he +thought it was only their way of being amusing; and when they tried to +punish him, he found it such a good joke that they very soon gave up +the attempt. The people, one and all, loved the merry little Prince +who laughed at life from his royal nursery and refused to grow any +older; but the King viewed the matter in quite another light. + +"What will become of the country," said his Majesty, "if the boy does +not learn to be serious?" + +"He is so happy," said the Queen, apologetically. "Is not that enough?" + +The King evidently thought it was not nearly enough, for he despatched +a page at once to fetch Prince Charming from the nursery. The Prince +came whistling into the room, with his hands in his pockets, which was +not a princely way of behaving, to begin with. + +"You are eleven years old," began the King, solemnly. + +"Everybody tells me that," said the Prince, smiling gaily. He supposed +grown-up people could not help saying the same thing so often; at all +events he did not mean to let it trouble him. + +"It is time you learned to be serious," continued the King, still more +solemnly. + +"To be serious? What is that? Is it a new game?" asked Prince +Charming, eagerly. + +"Hush!" whispered the Queen, anxiously. "It is what every one has to +be,--the Prime Minister, and the Head Cook, and everybody." + +"Surely," laughed the little Prince, "if so many people are occupied in +being serious there is no need for me to bother about it!" + +"You cannot even read," said the King, frowning. + +"No; but my Professor can," said Prince Charming. "He can read the +longest words in the dictionary without taking breath. When any one in +the kingdom can read so beautifully as that, it would surely be +impolite to try to imitate him!" + +"The poorest children in the kingdom know far more than you do," said +the King, who was rapidly losing patience. + +"Then there are plenty of people to tell me everything I want to know," +smiled the Prince. "What is the use of knowing just as much as +everybody else? There would be nothing left to talk about." + +The King looked at the Queen in despair. + +"It is not the boy's fault," said the Queen soothingly; "you see, the +fairies did not come to his christening." + +"And the wymps did," sighed the King. "I suppose that is why we have a +stupid son without an idea in his head." + +Prince Charming took off his crown and felt his head very carefully. + +"What is an idea?" he asked. "And why have I no idea in my head? Have +you got one in your head, father?" + +The King was so angry at being asked whether he had an idea in his +head, that he sent Prince Charming straight back to the nursery. +However, as that was where the Prince liked best to be, he laughed more +than ever and was not in the least bit ashamed of himself. + +Now, Prince Charming was known to be so light-hearted and so careless, +that all the flowers and all the animals told him their secrets; for it +is always safe to tell a secret to some one who is not taken seriously +by other people. And the Prince, for his part, delighted in talking to +the flowers and the animals, because they never reminded him that he +was eleven years old, nor told him to stop laughing as all the other +people did, the people who were too clever to worry their heads about +flowers and animals at all. So the Prince soon jumped out of the +nursery window into his own little garden, where his name was written +several times in mustard and cress, and where the tiger lilies fought +with the scarlet poppies because they had been planted one on the top +of the other, and where the guinea-pigs and the rabbits and the white +mice ran wild and did what they liked. He took a very large +watering-can and watered himself and a very small rose tree for the +third time since sunrise, and then sat down and looked at the mould on +his fingers. + +"How funny everything is," said Prince Charming, laughing heartily. "I +have done nothing but water my rose tree, and yet all my fingers are +covered with mould! Now, the Prime Minister might water fifty rose +trees and he would never get a speck of mould even on his shoe buckles. +I suppose it is because the Prime Minister has learnt to be serious. +Oh dear! I do wish I had an idea in my head!" + +"What are you saying?" asked the rose tree, shaking off the effects of +the Prince's overwhelming attentions. "Why do you wish to have an idea +in your head?" + +"Just to see what it would feel like," answered the Prince. "I don't +even know what an idea is. Do you?" + +"An idea," replied the rose tree in a superior tone, "is what somebody +remembers to have heard somebody else say." + +"I shall never have an idea, then," said Prince Charming; "for I never +remember what anybody says. Is there no other way of getting an idea?" + +"To be sure there is," answered the rose tree; "but very few people +know of it. You can go to the Red Rock Goblin, if you like, and get a +whole new idea for yourself. He has quantities of ideas, piled up in +heaps; but very few people succeed in getting one." + +"I shall never succeed, then," said the Prince; "for I am the stupidest +boy in the world." + +"That doesn't matter," said the rose tree. "The Red Rock Goblin does +not care much about clever people, I fancy. Go and try." + +"I think I will," said the Prince. "It is sure to be amusing, at all +events. What must I do to get there?" + +"It is of no use to do anything," answered the rose tree. "If you are +the right sort of boy you will find yourself there, that's all." + +Evidently, Prince Charming was the right sort of boy; for as he looked +at the rose tree, it grew larger and larger, and redder and redder, +until it was no longer a rose tree at all, but just a large, square, +red rock. The little Prince was so amused at the transformation that +he burst out laughing; and when he looked round and found that the +garden and the palace had disappeared too, and that he was standing in +the middle of nothing at all, he laughed even more than before at the +absurdity of it all. + +"Hullo!" said a voice from inside the square red rock. "What are you +laughing at?" + +"I am laughing at everything," said the little Prince. "I always laugh +at everything; but that may be because I haven't an idea in my head." + +"I am glad to hear that," said the voice. "Most of the people who come +here have so many ideas of their own that I take good care not to let +them steal one of mine. However, step inside, and you shall have one +of my very best ideas." + +The Prince could hardly be said to have accepted this invitation, for +he had no time to move before he found himself transported to the +interior of the rock; and there he stood in the middle of a large, +square room, that hung dimly lighted by a red lantern from the roof. +The Red Rock Goblin sat facing him, at a little round table. He had a +bushy red beard that trailed on the ground, and in his mouth was a long +pipe from which rings of red smoke slowly curled up towards the roof. + +"Do you feel afraid?" asked the Goblin, blowing a particularly long +thin line of red smoke into the air, which curled round and round the +little Prince until he could hardly breathe. He could still laugh, +however; and directly he did that, the red smoke cleared away again and +raced up to the roof, as though it were frightened at the very sound of +the Prince's laugh. + +"I'm not at all afraid, thank you," said Prince Charming. "My +Professor says that I am far too stupid to understand the meaning of +fear. Besides, what is there to be afraid of?" + +The Red Rock Goblin waved his long, red, bony hand towards the shelves +that covered the four walls. + +"Those shelves are packed with new ideas," he said. "Most people are +afraid of new ideas." + +"How stupid of them!" said the Prince, beginning to whistle. "A new +idea must be more amusing to play with than an old one, I should think!" + +"Of course it is," answered the Goblin. "That is what new ideas are +for. However, as you don't seem afraid, I will find you a new idea to +play with." + +He put his pipe on the table, and fetched a pair of steps, and climbed +up to the highest shelf of all. When he came down again, he held a +small bottle in his hand, which he uncorked; and from this he poured +something into a red metal bowl on the table. Immediately a delightful +smell of pine woods and strawberry jam and sea-air and hot cakes and +chrysanthemums filled the air; and the Prince drank it in and laughed +with pleasure. + +"Ah!" he cried suddenly, putting his hand to his head, as the contents +of the bottle fizzed and bubbled in the red metal bowl and the smell of +pine woods and all the other things grew stronger. "So it is all +because the sun shone crookedly on my christening day!" + +"Just so," answered the Red Rock Goblin, looking intently into the red +metal bowl. "That is why all the gifts of Fairyland, which ought to +have been yours, were given to Little Wisdom. Now, if you were to go +straight off and find Little Wisdom--" + +"That's not a bad idea!" shouted the Prince. + +"Of course it isn't," snapped the Goblin, drawing himself up +indignantly. "It is a very good idea; one of the best I have ever +made. If you want a _bad_ idea, you had better go somewhere else for +it." + +There was nothing for it but to apologise, and this the Prince did as +politely as he could, saying that if he had been a little more +accustomed to receiving ideas he would have known better how to behave +to this one. He then asked the Goblin to tell him the way to Little +Wisdom's home, but the Goblin answered him just as the rose tree had +done. + +"There isn't a way," he said. "If you are the right sort of boy you +will find yourself there, that's all." + +There was again no doubt whatever that Prince Charming was the right +sort of boy, for the walls of the square red rock fell down as flat as +the walls of a card house, and he found himself walking in a beautiful +cherry orchard, with bright green grass under his feet and showers of +white blossoms falling softly from above, with a blue and grey sky +overhead, and the sound of bees in the air. Under the largest cherry +tree sat a solemn little girl in a stiff white frock, with a large red +sunshade spread over her. The Prince looked at her doubtfully. If she +had been an ordinary little girl in a pinafore, with a laugh in her +voice, he would have asked her to play with him at once; but it was +impossible to be as friendly as that with a little girl in a stiff +white frock. What he finally did was what he always did when he was in +a difficulty--he began to laugh. The little girl only stared at him +more solemnly than before; and for the first time in his life Prince +Charming felt that laughing was a little out of place. + +"Will you come and play with me, Little Wisdom?" he said, taking off +his crown and making her his best court bow. + +"I never play," answered the little girl, who possessed all the gifts +of Fairyland. + +"That is a pity," observed the Prince, "for it is the only thing worth +doing. What do you do all day if you don't play?" + +"I think," answered Little Wisdom, gravely. "I think about everything +in the world; and when I have come to the end I begin all over again." + +"How queer!" said the Prince. "I have never thought about anything in +my whole life. It is much better to laugh." + +"Is it?" asked Little Wisdom, and she smoothed out the folds of her +stiff white frock thoughtfully. After thinking all day long for eleven +years it seemed as though it might make a change to learn to laugh. + +"Do you know," continued the Prince, "that you have all the gifts of +Fairyland? That is why I am the stupidest boy in the world." + +"I know," said Little Wisdom without seeming at all surprised, which +was, of course, only natural, for when one knows everything in the +world there is nothing left to be surprised at. + +"If the sun had shone straight on my christening day," said Prince +Charming, "I should have had all the gifts of Fairyland instead of you." + +"I know," said Little Wisdom again. It seemed to her very unnecessary +to talk so much about things that she had always known without being +told. + +"And if I had all the gifts of Fairyland instead of you, I should have +learnt to be serious," continued Prince Charming. + +"Perhaps you would," said Little Wisdom. She was beginning to wonder +if all stupid boys were as nice as this little Prince, who seemed to +take it for granted that she wanted to go on talking to him. + +"Of course," continued Prince Charming, "I should not think of +depriving you of any of the gifts from Fairyland; but if you will come +back to the palace with me and teach me how to be serious I will give +you the wymps' gift in exchange. It is not a very nice present, +perhaps," he added humbly, "because it makes everybody complain of you +so much; but it is the only gift I have to offer you." + +"And what is the wymps' gift?" asked Little Wisdom. She was quite +interested now, for here at last was something that she did not know. +The Prince answered her with a peal of laughter; and Little Wisdom +began to feel decidedly odd. First of all, she felt a curious tickling +somewhere at the back of her head, and then a widening out of the +thinking lines on her forehead, and then a twitching sensation round +the corners of her mouth, and then--but it is not difficult to guess +what happened next. It takes all the fairies in Fairyland to make a +little girl wise when she is only eleven years old; but even a stupid +little Prince without an idea in his head can teach her to laugh! + +Now, when the peasant and his wife heard their daughter laughing in the +cherry orchard, they came hurrying out to see what could be the cause +of such a wonderful event. All the people in the village came running +too--men and women, boys and girls, one on the top of the other; and +they stood round in a ring and stared, while the merry little Prince +and the wise little girl in the stiff white frock laughed at nothing at +all. + +"What is the meaning of it all?" asked the good people. "Is it the +fairies' doing?" + +"Nothing of the sort," answered the Prince, again taking off his crown +and making them all his best court bow. "It is only because the sun +shone crookedly on my christening day. That is why I have come to +fetch Little Wisdom. I really hope you have no objection?" + +He said this so very charmingly that everybody felt it would be most +impolite to object; besides, Little Wisdom had taken the Prince's hand +and seemed to have settled the question already. As for her parents, +they were overjoyed at the idea. + +"After all," said her father, "the child will make some stir in the +world." His wife laughed and cried at the same moment. + +"We shall lose Little Wisdom," she said; "but, at least, she will learn +to be like other children." + +Prince Charming was as usual in a great hurry, for he could never +endure to wait for anything except his lessons; so he turned to the +nearest cherry tree and asked it to tell him the way home. + +"If you don't know the way home without being told, you are not at all +the right sort of boy," answered the cherry tree. Of course, as we +know already, Prince Charming was the right sort of boy; and the very +next minute he marched once more into the royal palace, and by his side +tripped a sedate little girl in a stiff white frock. + +"I have found Little Wisdom," he announced to his parents and the court +in general, as they sat over their afternoon tea. "She is going to +stay here and play with me for ever and ever. Isn't it fun?" + +"The boy will never be serious," sighed the King, although he looked +with approval at the solemn face of the little girl in the stiff white +frock. + +"I will teach him to be serious," said Little Wisdom, "because he has +already taught me how to laugh." + +But she never did teach him to be serious, for Prince Charming did +nothing but laugh to the end of his days. This did not, however, +matter quite so much as might be supposed, for when one plays all day +long with some one who knows everything there is to know, one need not +be so very wise oneself. And when the time came for Prince Charming to +rule the country, the Queen who sat beside him on the throne was a wise +and beautiful maiden in a stiff white frock. So the Prince laughed as +much as before, and the country was governed with all the wisdom of the +fairies. + + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: the HTML version of this ebook contains scans of +the publisher's 10-page catalogue of children's books.] + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's All the Way to Fairyland, by Evelyn Sharp + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALL THE WAY TO FAIRYLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 30400.txt or 30400.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/4/0/30400/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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