Los Angeles herald., 1910-05-08
PRINCESS CRIED FOR MOON

Dear Aunt Laurie:
1t was a manor farm of the sixteenth
century. Like other manors, gave that
il belonged to the king. The servants
were flying hither and thither. Evil
IDENTIFY things were being prepared for
the coming of some one of note. FIRE.
quently the burly reeve dispatched
serfs to the white, sandy road, as fast
as their feet could carry them. Always
they returned with what seemed an
unsatisfactory word to the reeve.
Sometimes he would cuff the ears of
a gaping lad to satisfy his displeasure
The odors that penetrated the great
hall from the kitchens asserted the
preparation of variods meats and
pastries.
Suddenly the reeve leaped from the
chair in which he had thrown himself.
A rush of feet and too many bodies
trying to get through the entrance
had attracted his attention. Every
person striving to make himself heard
= before his comrades, caused the reeve
to lose his small amount of self-con-
troll. He seized the farthest protruding
head and shoulders. then with a
mighty jerk he hauled the owner into
the room sooner than he had expected
With loud voice he sent the serfs
hurrying away.
Then, turning to the lad, ne yelled:
Speak! Are ye dumb?"
The one addressed gasped: "a mes
senger-the queen"
The reeve waited to hear no more
Calling his wife, they passed into the
open.
A messenger dashed into the court
yard and made the over-loud an
nouncement. He dismounted and barred
his head as the queen and her little
daughter, then nearing 3 years of age,
came up on white palfreys caparisoned
in velvet and gold.
The queen gave her hand to a young
courtier and dismounted. Her tiny
daughter did the same, her pert little
entered the old arched door and began
their summer at the old estate.
That night the queen and her daugh
ter walked in the old gardens The
moon was full and silvery.
The princess was one of the most
spoiled and pampered children that
ever breathed. Indeed, she was accuS-
toned to having everything that young
or old could obtain. Having spent the
greater part of her life in stone castles,
she had never noticed the pale beauty
of the moon But tonight she did.
Her eyes turned to that beautiful body,
and she stretched her tiny arms toward
It, crying: Mother, see the pity ball.
1 want the pity ball" Now was she
to have the first evidence that there
are things which even a princess cam
not have. The mother was tired from
the days journey and was, perhaps, a
little irriable. They were walking up
the path to the manor. I do not know
Just how it happened. but the princess
must have started to cry-her usual
method of getting her way. At any
rate the queen snapped: "Now, that
is just one thing / can't get for you"
She must have spoken more emphatf-
cally than the princess had ever heard
her speak. for she stopped and her
mother passed on.
Then, in a condescending, but no less
determined voice, the child asserted,
"Well. father will get it when he
comes" as she swished her small skirts
down the garden walk after her mother.
Her father never got her the moon.
nor is it recorded that she ever asked
for it, She may have forgotten it; she
may not. Be that as it may, she never
possessed the moon.
PANSY WOOLLEY.
o. S. H. S.; 1910 Mariposa avenue.