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Once upon a time there was a little Princess who was very
unhappy because she was not as pretty to look at as she
thought a little Princess should be.
She sat in the garden and was sorrowful and cried a great
deal of the time, because she felt quite sure that no one
would ever make her a queen.
One day she sat by the wall of the garden with her hands in
her lap, and was looking very sad. An old woman, very bent
and gray, and carrying a bundle, passed along the road
outside and looked over the wall.
“Why do you cry, little Princess?” she asked.
“Because I am not beautiful,” the little Princess replied,
“and so I shall never be made a queen.”
“Why do you not go out into the world and find someone who
can make you beautiful?” asked the old woman as she started
again on her way. And this seemed like such a new adventure
that the little Princess went out through the garden gate
and started down the road.
The old woman had disappeared as if the road had taken her
into its gray dust, but before the little Princess had gone
very far she overtook a boy. He was stumbling along the road
as if it were hard for him to find his way. He put out his
hand and touched the little Princess’ silken sleeve.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“I am going to find someone who will help to make me
beautiful,” the little Princess said. “I am not pretty
enough to be a queen.”
“Wait a while and help me,” said the little boy. “I am
blind, and I cannot find my way home.”
So the little Princess took the blind boy’s hand in hers and
walked along with him, leading him very gently, until they
came to the cottage by the side of the road where he lived.
Then the little Princess went on, hurrying, for she felt
that she had lost a great deal of time. But before she had
gone very far, she saw a little girl standing by the edge of
the woods and crying. When the little girl saw the Princess,
she looked up and asked, “Where are you going?”
“I am going to find someone who will help me to be
beautiful,” the little Princess said. “I am not pretty
enough to be a queen.”
“Wait awhile and help me,” said the little girl. “My mother
is ill, and I went to the dairy to fetch her some milk and
eggs, but I have no money, and they say that I must pay.”
The little Princess pulled from the silk bag at her side a
bright gold piece. She had but two of them to buy herself
food on her journey, but she gave one to the child. “This is
to pay for the milk and eggs,” she said. Then the little
girl laughed with happiness. Her smile was as bright as the
sunshine that came down through the trees and lighted them
both.
“Now I must make great haste,” thought the little Princess.
“It is getting on in the day and I am no more beautiful than
when I started.” But she had gone only a little way when she
came suddenly upon the same old woman, who had spoken to her
in the morning.
“Did you do as I bade you?” asked the old woman.
“Yes,” said the little Princess. “But I am still ugly to
look at,” she added, dropping her head.
“Oh no, you are not,” said the old woman. “Look!” And she
held a little mirror before the face of the Princess.
A strange thing had happened. The little Princess’s eyes, in
leading the little blind boy, had grown as bright as stars.
Her hair was as shining as the gold piece which she had
given away.
“Shall I ever be a queen!” asked the Princess.
The old woman took a small gold crown from the bundle she
carried and set it upon the little Princess’ head.
“You are a queen, my dear!” she said. |
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