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Once upon
a time...
Once upon a time there lived a King and Queen, who were the
best creatures in the world, and so kind-hearted that they could not
bear to see their subjects want for anything. The consequence was
that they gradually gave away all their treasures, till they
positively had nothing left to live upon; and this coming to the
ears of their neighbour, King Bruin, he promptly raised a large army
and marched into their country. The poor King, having no means of
defending his kingdom, was forced to disguise himself with a false
beard, and carrying his only son, the little Prince Featherhead, in
his arms, and accompanied only by the Queen, to make the best of his
way into the wild country. They were lucky enough to escape the
soldiers of King Bruin, and at last, after unheard-of fatigues and
adventures, they found themselves in a charming green valley,
through which flowed a stream clear as crystal and overshadowed by
beautiful trees. As they looked round them with delight, a voice
said suddenly: 'Fish, and see what you will catch.' Now the King had
always loved fishing, and never went anywhere without a fish-hook or
two in his pocket, so he drew one out hastily, and the Queen lent
him her girdle to fasten it to, and it had hardly touched the water
before it caught a big fish, which made them an excellent meal--and
not before they needed it, for they had found nothing until then but
a few wild berries and roots. They thought that for the present they
could not do better than stay in this delightful place, and the King
set to work, and soon built a bower of branches to shelter them; and
when it was finished the Queen was so charmed with it that she
declared nothing was lacking to complete her happiness but a flock
of sheep, which she and the little Prince might tend while the King
fished. They soon found that the fish were not only abundant and
easily caught, but also very beautiful, with glittering scales of
every imaginable hue; and before long the King discovered that he
could teach them to talk and whistle better than any parrot. Then he
determined to carry some to the nearest town and try to sell them;
and as no one had ever before seen any like them the people flocked
about him eagerly and bought all he had caught, so that presently
not a house in the city was considered complete without a crystal
bowl full of fish, and the King's customers were very particular
about having them to match the rest of the furniture, and gave him a
vast amount of trouble in choosing them. However, the money he
obtained in this way enabled him to buy the Queen her flock of
sheep, as well as many of the other things which go to make life
pleasant, so that they never once regretted their lost kingdom. Now
it happened that the Fairy of the Beech-Woods lived in the lovely
valley to which chance had led the poor fugitives, and it was she
who had, in pity for their forlorn condition, sent the King such
good luck to his fishing, and generally taken them under her
protection. This she was all the more inclined to do as she loved
children, and little Prince Featherhead, who never cried and grew
prettier day by day, quite won her heart. She made the acquaintance
of the King and the Queen without at first letting them know that
she was a fairy, and they soon took a great fancy to her, and even
trusted her with the precious Prince, whom she carried off to her
palace, where she regaled him with cakes and tarts and every other
good thing. This was the way she chose of making him fond of her;
but afterwards, as he grew older, she spared no pains in educating
and training him as a prince should be trained. But unfortunately,
in spite of all her care, he grew so vain and frivolous that he
quitted his peaceful country life in disgust, and rushed eagerly
after all the foolish gaieties of the neighbouring town, where his
handsome face and charming manners speedily made him popular. The
King and Queen deeply regretted this alteration in their son, but
did not know how to mend matters, since the good old Fairy had made
him so self-willed.
Just at this time the Fairy of the Beech-Woods received a visit from
an old friend of hers called Saradine, who rushed into her house so
breathless with rage that she could hardly speak.
'Dear, dear! what is the matter?' said the Fairy of the Beech- Woods
soothingly.
'The matter!' cried Saradine. 'You shall soon hear all about it. You
know that, not content with endowing Celandine, Princess of the
Summer Islands, with everything she could desire to make her
charming, I actually took the trouble to bring her up myself; and
now what does she do but come to me with more coaxings and caresses
than usual to beg a favour. And what do you suppose this favour
turns out to be--when I have been cajoled into promising to grant
it? Nothing more nor less than a request that I will take back all
my gifts--"since," says my young madam, "if I have the good fortune
to please you, how am I to know that it is really I, myself? And
that's how it will be all my life long, whenever I meet anybody. You
see what a weariness my life will be to me under these
circumstances, and yet I assure you I am not ungrateful to you for
all your kindness!" I did all I could,' continued Saradine, 'to make
her think better of it, but in vain; so after going through the
usual ceremony for taking back my gifts, I'm come to you for a
little peace and quietness. But, after all, I have not taken
anything of consequence from this provoking Celandine. Nature had
already made her so pretty, and given her such a ready wit of her
own, that she will do perfectly well without me. However, I thought
she deserved a little lesson, so to begin with I have whisked her
off into the desert, and there left her!'
'What! all alone, and without any means of existence?' cried the
kind-hearted old Fairy. 'You had better hand her over to me. I don't
think so very badly of her after all. I'll just cure her vanity by
making her love someone better than herself. Really, when I come to
consider of it, I declare the little minx has shown more spirit and
originality in the matter than one expects of a princess.'
Saradine willingly consented to this arrangement, and the old
Fairy's first care was to smooth away all the difficulties which
surrounded the Princess, and lead her by the mossy path overhung
with trees to the bower of the King and Queen, who still pursued
their peaceful life in the valley.
They were immensely surprised at her appearance, but her charming
face, and the deplorably ragged condition to which the thorns and
briers had reduced her once elegant attire, speedily won their
compassion; they recognised her as a companion in misfortune, and
the Queen welcomed her heartily, and begged her to share their
simple repast. Celandine gracefully accepted their hospitality, and
soon told them what had happened to her. The King was charmed with
her spirit, while the Queen thought she had indeed been daring thus
to go against the Fairy's wishes.
'Since it has ended in my meeting you,' said the Princess, 'I cannot
regret the step I have taken, and if you will let me stay with you,
I shall be perfectly happy.'
The King and Queen were only too delighted to have this charming
Princess to supply the place of Prince Featherhead, whom they saw
but seldom, since the Fairy had provided him with a palace in the
neighbouring town, where he lived in the greatest luxury, and did
nothing but amuse himself from morning to night. So Celandine
stayed, and helped the Queen to keep house, and very soon they loved
her dearly. When the Fairy of the Beech-Woods came to them, they
presented the Princess to her, and told her story, little thinking
that the Fairy knew more about Celandine than they did. The old
Fairy was equally delighted with her, and often invited her to visit
her Leafy Palace, which was the most enchanting place that could be
imagined, and full of treasures. Often she would say to the
Princess, when showing her some wonderful thing:
'This will do for a wedding gift some day.' And Celandine could not
help thinking that it was to her that the Fairy meant to give the
two blue wax-torches which burned without ever getting smaller, or
the diamond from which more diamonds were continually growing, or
the boat that sailed under water, or whatever beautiful or wonderful
thing they might happen to be looking at. It is true that she never
said so positively, but she certainly allowed the Princess to
believe it, because she thought a little disappointment would be
good for her. But the person she really relied upon for curing
Celandine of her vanity was Prince Featherhead. The old Fairy was
not at all pleased with the way he had been going on for some time,
but her heart was so soft towards him that she was unwilling to take
him away from the pleasures he loved, except by offering him
something better, which is not the most effectual mode of
correction, though it is without doubt the most agreeable.
However, she did not even hint to the Princess that Featherhead was
anything but absolutely perfect, and talked of him so much that when
at last she announced that he was coming to visit her, Celandine
made up her mind that this delightful Prince would be certain to
fall in love with her at once, and was quite pleased at the idea.
The old Fairy thought so too, but as this was not at all what she
wished, she took care to throw such an enchantment over the Princess
that she appeared to Featherhead quite ugly and awkward, though to
every one else she looked just as usual. So when he arrived at the
Leafy Palace, more handsome and fascinating even than ever she had
been led to expect, he hardly so much as glanced at the Princess,
but bestowed all his attention upon the old Fairy, to whom he seemed
to have a hundred things to say. The Princess was immensely
astonished at his indifference, and put on a cold and offended air,
which, however, he did not seem to observe. Then as a last resource
she exerted all her wit and gaiety to amuse him, but with no better
success, for he was of an age to be more attracted by beauty than by
anything else, and though he responded politely enough, it was
evident that his thoughts were elsewhere. Celandine was deeply
mortified, since for her part the Prince pleased her very well, and
for the first time she bitterly regretted the fairy gifts she had
been anxious to get rid of. Prince Featherhead was almost equally
puzzled, for he had heard nothing from the King and Queen but the
praises of this charming Princess, and the fact that they had spoken
of her as so very beautiful only confirmed his opinion that people
who live in the country have no taste. He talked to them of his
charming acquaintances in the town, the beauties he had admired, did
admire, or thought he was going to admire, until Celandine, who
heard it all, was ready to cry with vexation. The Fairy too was
quite shocked at his conceit, and hit upon a plan for curing him of
it. She sent to him by an unknown messenger a portrait of Princess
Celandine as she really was, with this inscription: 'All this beauty
and sweetness, with a loving heart and a great kingdom, might have
been yours but for your well-known fickleness.'
This message made a great impression upon the Prince, but not so
much as the portrait. He positively could not tear his eyes away
from it, and exclaimed aloud that never, never had he seen anything
so lovely and so graceful. Then he began to think that it was too
absurd that he, the fascinating Featherhead, should fall in love
with a portrait; and, to drive away the recollections of its
haunting eyes, he rushed back to the town; but somehow everything
seemed changed. The beauties no longer pleased him, their witty
speeches had ceased to amuse; and indeed, for their parts, they
found the Prince far less amiable than of yore, and were not sorry
when he declared that, after all, a country life suited him best,
and went back to the Leafy Palace. Meanwhile, the Princess Celandine
had been finding the time pass but slowly with the King and Queen,
and was only too pleased when Featherhead reappeared. She at once
noticed the change in him, and was deeply curious to find the reason
of it. Far from avoiding her, he now sought her company and seemed
to take pleasure in talking to her, and yet the Princess did not for
a moment flatter herself with the idea that he was in love with her,
though it did not take her long to decide that he certainly loved
someone. But one day the Princess, wandering sadly by the river,
spied Prince Featherhead fast asleep in the shade of a tree, and
stole nearer to enjoy the delight of gazing at his dear face
unobserved. Judge of her astonishment when she saw that he was
holding in his hand a portrait of herself! In vain did she puzzle
over the apparent contradictoriness of his behaviour. Why did he
cherish her portrait while he was so fatally indifferent to herself?
At last she found an opportunity of asking him the name of the
Princess whose picture he carried about with him always.
'Alas! how can I tell you?' replied he.
'Why should you not?' said the Princess timidly. 'Surely there is
nothing to prevent you.'
'Nothing to prevent me!' repeated he, 'when my utmost efforts have
failed to discover the lovely original. Should I be so sad if I
could but find her? But I do not even know her name.'
More surprised than ever, the Princess asked to be allowed to see
the portrait, and after examining it for a few minutes returned it,
remarking shyly that at least the original had every cause to be
satisfied with it.
'That means that you consider it flattered,' said the Prince
severely. 'Really, Celandine, I thought better of you, and should
have expected you to be above such contemptible jealousy. But all
women are alike!'
'Indeed, I meant only that it was a good likeness,' said the
Princess meekly.
'Then you know the original,' cried the Prince, throwing himself on
his knees beside her. 'Pray tell me at once who it is, and don't
keep me in suspense!'
'Oh! don't you see that it is meant for me?' cried Celandine.
The Prince sprang to his feet, hardly able to refrain from telling
her that she must be blinded by vanity to suppose she resembled the
lovely portrait even in the slightest degree; and after gazing at
her for an instant with icy surprise, turned and left her without
another word, and in a few hours quitted the Leafy Palace
altogether.
Now the Princess was indeed unhappy, and could no longer bear to
stay in a place where she had been so cruelly disdained. So, without
even bidding farewell to the King and Queen, she left the valley
behind her, and wandered sadly away, not caring whither. After
walking until she was weary, she saw before her a tiny house, and
turned her slow steps towards it. The nearer she approached the more
miserable it appeared, and at length she saw a little old woman
sitting upon the door-step, who said grimly:
'Here comes one of these fine beggars who are too idle to do
anything but run about the country!'
'Alas! madam,' said Celandine, with tears in her pretty eyes, 'a sad
fate forces me to ask you for shelter.'
'Didn't I tell you what it would be?' growled the old hag. 'From
shelter we shall proceed to demand supper, and from supper money to
take us on our way. Upon my word, if I could be sure of finding some
one every day whose head was as soft as his heart, I wouldn't wish
for a more agreeable life myself! But I have worked hard to build my
house and secure a morsel to eat, and I suppose you think that I am
to give away everything to the first passer-by who chooses to ask
for it. Not at all! I wager that a fine lady like you has more money
than I have. I must search her, and see if it is not so,' she added,
hobbling towards Celandine with the aid of her stick.
'Alas! madam,' replied the Princess, 'I only wish I had. I would
give it to you with all the pleasure in life.'
'But you are very smartly dressed for the kind of life you lead,'
continued the old woman.
'What!' cried the Princess, 'do you think I am come to beg of you?'
'I don't know about that,' answered she; 'but at any rate you don't
seem to have come to bring me anything. But what is it that you do
want? Shelter? Well, that does not cost much; but after that comes
supper, and that I can't hear of. Oh dear no! Why, at your age one
is always ready to eat; and now you have been walking, and I suppose
you are ravenous?'
'Indeed no, madam,' answered the poor Princess, 'I am too sad to be
hungry.'
'Oh, well! if you will promise to go on being sad, you may stay for
the night,' said the old woman mockingly.
Thereupon she made the Princess sit down beside her, and began
fingering her silken robe, while she muttered 'Lace on top, lace
underneath! This must have cost you a pretty penny! It would have
been better to save enough to feed yourself, and not come begging to
those who want all they have for themselves. Pray, what may you have
paid for these fine clothes?'
'Alas! madam,' answered the Princess, 'I did not buy them, and I
know nothing about money.'
'What do you know, if I may ask?' said the old dame.
'Not much; but indeed I am very unhappy,' cried Celandine, bursting
into tears, 'and if my services are any good to you--'
'Services!' interrupted the hag crossly. 'One has to pay for
services, and I am not above doing my own work.'
'Madam, I will serve you for nothing,' said the poor Princess, whose
spirits were sinking lower and lower. 'I will do anything you
please; all I wish is to live quietly in this lonely spot.'
'Oh! I know you are only trying to take me in,' answered she; 'and
if I do let you serve me, is it fitting that you should be so much
better dressed I am? If I keep you, will you give me your clothes
and wear some that I will provide you with? It is true that I am
getting old and may want someone to take care of me some day.'
'Oh! for pity's sake, do what you please with my clothes,' cried
poor Celandine miserably.
And the old woman hobbled off with great alacrity, and fetched a
little bundle containing a wretched dress, such as the Princess had
never even seen before, and nimbly skipped round, helping her to put
it on instead of her own rich robe, with many exclamations of:
'Saints!--what a magnificent lining! And the width of it! It will
make me four dresses at least. Why, child, I wonder you could walk
under such a weight, and certainly in my house you would not have
had room to turn round.'
So saying, she folded up the robe, and put it by with great care,
while she remarked to Celandine:
'That dress of mine certainly suits you to a marvel; be sure you
take great care of it.'
When supper-time came she went into the house, declining all the
Princess's offers of assistance, and shortly afterwards brought out
a very small dish, saying:
'Now let us sup.'
Whereupon she handed Celandine a small piece of black bread and
uncovered the dish, which contained two dried plums.
'We will have one between us,' continued the old dame; 'and as you
are the visitor, you shall have the half which contains the stone;
but be very careful that you don't swallow it, for I keep them
against the winter, and you have no idea what a good fire they make.
Now, you take my advice--which won't cost you anything--and remember
that it is always more economical to buy fruit with stones on this
account.'
Celandine, absorbed in her own sad thoughts, did not even hear this
prudent counsel, and quite forgot to eat her share of the plum,
which delighted the old woman, who put it by carefully for her
breakfast, saying:
'I am very much pleased with you, and if you go on as you have
begun, we shall do very well, and I can teach you many useful things
which people don't generally know. For instance, look at my house!
It is built entirely of the seeds of all the pears I have eaten in
my life. Now, most people throw them away, and that only shows what
a number of things are wasted for want of a little patience and
ingenuity.'
But Celandine did not find it possible to be interested in this and
similar pieces of advice. And the old woman soon sent her to bed,
for fear the night air might give her an appetite. She passed a
sleepless night; but in the morning the old dame remarked:
'I heard how well you slept. After such a night you cannot want any
breakfast; so while I do my household tasks you had better stay in
bed, since the more one sleeps the less one need eat; and as it is
market-day I will go to town and buy a pennyworth of bread for the
week's eating.'
And so she chattered on, but poor Celandine did not hear or heed
her; she wandered out into the desolate country to think over her
sad fate. However, the good Fairy of the Beech-Woods did not want
her to be starved, so she sent her an unlooked for relief in the
shape of a beautiful white cow, which followed her back to the tiny
house. When the old woman saw it her joy knew no bounds.
'Now we can have milk and cheese and butter!' cried she. 'Ah! how
good milk is! What a pity it is so ruinously expensive!' So they
made a little shelter of branches for the beautiful creature which
was quite gentle, and followed Celandine about like a dog when she
took it out every day to graze. One morning as she sat by a little
brook, thinking sadly, she suddenly saw a young stranger
approaching, and got up quickly, intending to avoid him. But Prince
Featherhead, for it was he, perceiving her at the same moment,
rushed towards her with every demonstration of joy: for he had
recognised her, not as the Celandine whom he had slighted, but as
the lovely Princess whom he had sought vainly for so long. The fact
was that the Fairy of the Beech-Woods, thinking she had been
punished enough, had withdrawn the enchantment from her, and
transferred it to Featherhead, thereby in an instant depriving him
of the good looks which had done so much towards making him the
fickle creature he was. Throwing himself down at the Princess's
feet, he implored her to stay, and at least speak to him, and she at
last consented, but only because he seemed to wish it so very much.
After that he came every day in the hope of meeting her again, and
often expressed his delight at being with her. But one day, when he
had been begging Celandine to love him, she confided to him that it
was quite impossible, since her heart was already entirely occupied
by another.
'I have,' said she, 'the unhappiness of loving a Prince who is
fickle, frivolous, proud, incapable of caring for anyone but
himself, who has been spoilt by flattery, and, to crown all, who
does not love me.'
'But,' cried Prince Featherhead, 'surely you cannot care for so
contemptible and worthless a creature as that.'
'Alas! but I do care,' answered the Princess, weeping.
'But where can his eyes be,' said the Prince, 'that your beauty
makes no impression upon him? As for me, since I have possessed your
portrait I have wandered over the whole world to find you, and, now
we have met, I see that you are ten times lovelier than I could have
imagined, and I would give all I own to win your love.'
'My portrait?' cried Celandine with sudden interest. 'Is it possible
that Prince Featherhead can have parted with it?'
'He would part with his life sooner, lovely Princess,' answered he;
'I can assure you of that, for I am Prince Featherhead.'
At the same moment the Fairy of the Beech-Woods took away the
enchantment, and the happy Princess recognised her lover, now truly
hers, for the trials they had both undergone had so changed and
improved them that they were capable of a real love for each other.
You may imagine how perfectly happy they were, and how much they had
to hear and to tell. But at length it was time to go back to the
little house, and as they went along Celandine remembered for the
first time what a ragged old dress she was wearing, and what an odd
appearance she must present. But the Prince declared that it became
her vastly, and that he thought it most picturesque. When they
reached the house the old woman received them very crossly.
'I declare,' said she, 'that it's perfectly true: wherever there is
a girl you may be sure that a young man will appear before long! But
don't imagine that I'm going to have you here--not a bit of it, be
off with you, my fine fellow!'
Prince Featherhead was inclined to be angry at this uncivil
reception, but he was really too happy to care much, so he only
demanded, on Celandine's behalf, that the old dame should give her
back her own attire, that she might go away suitably dressed.
This request roused her to fury, since she had counted upon the
Princess's fine robes to clothe her for the rest of her life, so
that it was some time before the Prince could make himself heard to
explain that he was willing to pay for them. The sight of a handful
of gold pieces somewhat mollified her, however, and after making
them both promise faithfully that on no consideration would they ask
for the gold back again, she took the Princess into the house and
grudgingly doled out to her just enough of her gay attire to make
her presentable, while the rest she pretended to have lost. After
this they found that they were very hungry, for one cannot live on
love, any more than on air, and then the old woman's lamentations
were louder than before. 'What!' she cried, 'feed people who were as
happy as all that! Why, it was simply ruinous!'
But as the Prince began to look angry, she, with many sighs and
mutterings, brought out a morsel of bread, a bowl of milk, and six
plums, with which the lovers were well content: for as long as they
could look at one another they really did not know what they were
eating. It seemed as if they would go on for ever with their
reminiscences, the Prince telling how he had wandered all over the
world from beauty to beauty, always to be disappointed when he found
that no one resembled the portrait; the Princess wondering how it
was he could have been so long with her and yet never have
recognised her, and over and over again pardoning him for his cold
and haughty behaviour to her.
'For,' she said, 'you see, Featherhead, I love you, and love makes
everything right! But we cannot stay here,' she added; 'what are we
to do?'
The Prince thought they had better find their way to the Fairy of
the Beech-Woods and put themselves once more under her protection,
and they had hardly agreed upon this course when two little chariots
wreathed with jasmine and honeysuckle suddenly appeared, and,
stepping into them, they were whirled away to the Leafy Palace. Just
before they lost sight of the little house they heard loud cries and
lamentations from the miserly old dame, and, looking round,
perceived that the beautiful cow was vanishing in spite of her
frantic efforts to hold it fast. And they afterwards heard that she
spent the rest of her life in trying to put the handful of gold the
Prince had thrown to her into her money-bag. For the Fairy, as a
punishment for her avarice, caused it to slip out again as fast as
she dropped it in.
The Fairy of the Beech-Woods ran to welcome the Prince and Princess
with open arms, only too delighted to find them so much improved
that she could, with a clear conscience, begin to spoil them again.
Very soon the Fairy Saradine also arrived, bringing the King and
Queen with her. Princess Celandine implored her pardon, which she
graciously gave; indeed the Princess was so charming she could
refuse her nothing. She also restored to her the Summer Islands, and
promised her protection in all things. The Fairy of the Beech-Woods
then informed the King and Queen that their subjects had chased King
Bruin from the throne, and were waiting to welcome them back again;
but they at once abdicated in favour of Prince Featherhead,
declaring that nothing could induce them to forsake their peaceful
life, and the Fairies undertook to see the Prince and Princess
established in their beautiful kingdoms. Their marriage took place
the next day, and they lived happily ever afterwards, for Celandine
was never vain and Featherhead was never fickle any more.
Prince Featherhead And
The Princess Celandine
from the Green Fairy Book
Story Edited
by Andrew Lang |
