The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-01-19

Letter in the Pail Mall Gazette.
ADVENTURES OF THE DICTTONA-
RY PRINCESS.
| Long ago, in the far-away, dreamy,
delightful days of dryads and pixies
and wild old witches, there lived i1N~a
deep. dim dungeon the Dictionary Prin-
cess. She was called the Dictionary
Princess because she had nothing but
dictionaries to play with. You see, her
grandfather was an ogre, and swal-
! lowed dictionaries, so he had to be put
into the dungeon, and big fat dictiona-
ries were thrown down to him every
day through trapdoor in the fiat roof.
The princess had neither father nor
! mother. Her father had been the
youngest son Of king, but her ogre
grandfather was her mothers father,
and he was no king at all. He had
once been the prime minister, but he
swallowed so many dictionaries that.
when he spoke, no one could understand
what he said. and people had to be all
tn time chasing up dictionaries. so
they condemned him to the dungeon.
His little grand-d daughter went with
| him, because she loved him, for he was
kindly, gentle old agre, in spite of the
terrible language he used.
The princess was very happy in the
dungeon, because her old grandfather
! was happy in having her there. She
was not obliged to eat dictionaries.
Dainty little dinners were sent down
| through the trapdoor daily, which had
/ been prepared specially for her by the
cook of the court where her grandfath-
! ef had once been prime minister.
But she had nothing but dictionaries
| to play WITH for her grandfather did
now swallow all that We're sent down
! TO him. his appetite was such that he
/ always had to have a great supply on
hand to feast his eyes upon long after
! his stomach had been satisfied.
Every morning the princess used to
sit down before a big, big dictionary,
and say: Now. Mr.. Dictionary, what
shall we play with this morning."
Then she would thrust her little thumb
between two pages and open the big
! book at random. She would begin at
! the top Of the left-hand page and run
her little index finger down the long
column till she came to something to
play with. One day it would be p-
rate sea gull of the Arctic regions
called the Lestris, whom she would
feed on lettuce, and he would come and
perch on her shoulder. and playfully
/ tap her ears with his sharp hooked
bill. Then she and the dictionary
would summon the Leviathan, who was
a truly terrible beast. and lived next
door to the Lestris. and the two would
have a tremendous fight, in which the
Leviathan would nearly drown the Les
iris with great streams of water which
he would spout over him, and the Les
| iris would prick holes in the horny side
Of the Leviathan with his ugly bill.
After the exciting fight. the little maid
used to say: Nov, Mr. Dictionary,
let's play something else" Again she
would shut up the book and open 1t at
random, and run her finger down the
hand page This time a wonderful
siren would leap out of the dictionary
and play witching music to the lonely
! little girl. So wonderful, indeed. was
the music that the princess forgot she
was in the dungeon, and she saw
strange pictures of blue, blue seas, with
| little white boats tossing inthe sun
light, and she felt herself being borne
away in one of the little boattto the
beautiful new lands. Then suddenly
the riren would stop playing and de-
mand a supper of sippets and syrup,
and after she was satisfied the yittle
girl would shut her up in che dictionary
and summon a slaer out of the folded
page to play With her the rest of the
day.
All sorts of birds and beasts and fish
and toys came out Of the old dictiona-
ry to play with the little girl. All
kinds of fruit and flowers and dainty
dishes she found between the covers,
and marvellous indeed were the feasts
she served to her dictionary dolls,
She taught the Wood Ibis to play on
the tambourine, she taught the Scooter
to catch scorpions, the Moholi to chase
mule-cricket8. and she fed the Leipoa
on legumes.
She took the gold wit and the golden
pheasant and the gold finch for a ride
in a gondola, and they all fished indus
tr4ously for gold SHINY, which they took
home and tried and served to the Chi
naman with a gong.
She went to ride perched upon a dro-
medary while a dronebee buzzed over
head, and she caught crabs with crack
ers, and then taught them to play hide
and-seek with the chimpanzees.
Her dictionary doll she called pup
pet. but she loved her and used to play
with her hour after hour, but she loved
the dictionary fairies best of all. They
were so very kind to her. and they used
to tell her in confidence that some day
a beautiful prince would come to the
dungeon, u real prince, even more real
! than the dictionary prince, who was al