The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-06-13

10
king, and when he differed from her she had |
way of saying, All that is Just like your |
great grandfather, who grew as a pkin
ten years in my garden" She lectured the
queen about her linen and her maids; and il
the queen pouted-
/" My dear, she would cry, with malicious |
twinkle, a" if l ever transform you it shall be |
into fan; a lace fan with gold sticks and |
pink swan's-down; you are so pretty my
dear!" which made the queen historical and |
continually afraid that she felt herself turning
into gold sticks; while she, that is, our fairy,
used to rap the pages over the knuckles, and
make little chils creep in their backs by tell
ing them how she had whole papers of pins
that were once pink pages like them-all of
which was vastly unpleasant. But still the
queen should not have laughed with her
maids in the enchanted rooms; for when
the fairy entered it again this is what she
heard
"With her hump.
And her crutch,
That goes thump, tbump."
"What?" cried the fairy, stopping in as
constituent.
With her hump" repeated the shutters,
tittering.
"And her crutch," suggested the poker
That goes thump! thump! ha ha!' roar
ed the fire.
Always prying and meddling," twanged
the harp.
"She should see herself as others see her."
said the mirror.
Turning people into pumpkins and eX-
pecting them to be grateful" cried the easy
chair.
Ii had my way | would turn her out of
the palace" squeaked the door.
Yes, indeed" answered the curtains, and
even the me threads in the carpet.
All of which would have been intolerable
impertinence, only the fairy's enchanted
room was simply chamber of echoes, which
with its furniture repeated over and over
again whatever had been said in it till Peri
Wrinkle THAT was the fairy's name) came to
hear it.
"Mighty WELL" said Periwinkle, grimiy. 81
shall be very sure to be at the christen-
ing"
This was the christening of the kings only
son, who lay in state in golden cradle; and
dare say if you had seen him you would
have said that he was iugly, for, being very
young, he was as red as tomato, and had no
nose worth mentioning. But all the court
lers declared that he was the finest prince in
the world, and everybody came to see him.
With the rest came Periwinkle.
She was so smiling that you could never
have supposed that anything was wrong.
But She Wore Her Yellow Cap!
Now when she wore that as all the world
knows, she was in a trightiul humor
"Perlwinkle has her yellow cap on,' whs-
pered my Lord High Fiddlestick to the
queen.
"Dear me! what can have happened" an
swered the queen, guilty. remembering what
she had said in the enchanted room 81 hope
she won't wish something dreadful Tor the
baby"
"a very fine child!' pronounced the fairy
in high. squeakng voice, stepping to the
foot OF the golden cradle, 'And he shall al
ways be prosperous, ON condition that he is
never reproved or told that he has done any
thing wrong.
always prosperous! Oh, you dear, good
Periwinkle?' cried the queen in rapture; and
she could not thank the fairy sufficiently, al
though Feriwinke only answered her by
leaning on her crutch and burs ting into
fits of shrill laughter.
All the wisest men in the kingdom were
engaged as masters for the young prince as
soon as he could learn. And, first. the man
VINO wrote all the dictionaries in those DAYS,
and understood all languages, even to that of
the birds, came to teach HIM his alphabet
"'A," said the wise man.
"a, ; said the prince.
"B," said the wise man.
The prince said nothing.
"B," your royal highness"
The prince ran away and began to chase |
the queens lap-dog.
our royal hiShness must come back "the |
wise man was going to say, but the queen |
clapped her hands over his mouth
Good Heavens! my dear Mr.. Dictionary,
don't you know that the prince must never
be reproved, or told that he has done wrong?
You must wait till the prince chooses to
come, back"
The wise man waited till dark and then
went away in huff; and there was an end |
OF learning the alphabet till, six months after,
the prince said
II want to see the man who says "a"
Inc wise man came at once, and repeated |
the alphabet, the prince repeating it after |
MN, Then he began to ask the letters, one |
by one, till he came to "F."
That is K" said the prince.
"Oh no" the wise man was about to saw. |
when he saw the king and queen and the
Lord High Fiddlestick all reckoning to him
in great fright.
Don't you know" they said to him, "that
the prince must never be told that he is |
wrong?"
The man of dictionaries was silent. and tbe |
prince finished the alphabet in as hour, and |
went on to the Speling-book. This kept him |
busy only week. 1t is true that he spelled |
dog cat, and book cow, and chair fool. But |
ne reached the end while another child would |
nave puzzed over the first three pages; and
surely you cannot deny that here was fine
getting on? Before you. could think he was
ready for geography, and they sent for the
greatest traveller in the world who had seen
all the countries in the world himself.
lie came at once-for he was charmed with |
the; honor-and gave the prince lesson. On |
the second day operations commenced in |
good earnest.
"Be pleased to bound Chnan commenced
the traveller
"Chlna,' answered the prince, sis bounded
on the north by New York on the south by
Japan. on the east by the Alps, and on the
west by the North Pole"
The great traveller opened his eyes and |
mouth wl1e but the queen interrupted him |
before be could speak word.
"You must not tell the prince that he is |
wrong" she whispered; and after that the |
great traveller became very silent, and the |
prince learned geography as rapidly as he had |
done spelling
with arithmetic he got on even better
Ihey brought the prince man who was so
clever that he actually thought in figures.
But as he lived among his books he knew
hoGhIng OF what was going on in the world;
and when the prince told him that "twice |
two are fiye," he cried out bluntly, aOh mol |
your royal highness" which might have pro-
duced dreadful consequences if the Lord Hiob |
Fiddlesticks had not instantly twisted his |
handkerchief about old Multiplied tiontabIe's |
mouth and dragged him Off before the prince |
could hear what he said
AS it was the queen tainted. and the shocl, |
TO the whole court was so great that it was
agreed that the prince should make no fur
ther attempts on arithmetic, but that his |
majesty should issue decree ordering sstbat |
the prince should have a perfect knowledge |
of figures" which would answer quite as we'll |
it was thought
This method of education was an easy one |
for the prince, but you can hardly imagine in |
What continual trouble were his attendants
ana instructors. He was the most disagree |
able boy in the world. He had never been
instructed in civility, because no one conld
say 10 MN, you must not do that He
howled, sang, stamped, whistled and ran nm
and down in the church itself. He danced on
the table if he had mind. He threw tba
gravy i'll the kings face if he had a mind
he Jumped into the water when he pleased
and people were obliged to fish him ont. for
OF course he could not be taught to swim. as
no one could say to him, "No, it must be done
IN THIS way" For the same reason he could
never never learn to sing or to dance or to drive.
Ihere never was such an oaf. such a black
mead, nor yet such a destroying frel such
Whirlwind of mischief!
ohe DAY be imagined that it would he fine
". " puild bonfire in the audience-room of
omt pa'ace, and began to pile the furniture to-
sW,, Ills us guards ran for the queen.
my stars h 7! cried the queen when she
saw What ne was about, "send tor the ting"
the councilp "o Nihs' cal
"Oh, what shall we do!o exclaimed tho