Holiday Romance | Page 9

princes as he stood on the steps
coming home from school, and terrified him out of his wits; and he put
his hand through a pane of glass, and bled, bled, bled. When the
seventeen other young princes and princesses saw him bleed, bleed,
bleed, they were terrified out of their wits too, and screamed
themselves black in their seventeen faces all at once. But the Princess
Alicia put her hands over all their seventeen mouths, one after another,
and persuaded them to be quiet because of the sick queen. And then she
put the wounded prince's hand in a basin of fresh cold water, while they
stared with their twice seventeen are thirty-four, put down four and
carry three, eyes, and then she looked in the hand for bits of glass, and

there were fortunately no bits of glass there. And then she said to two
chubby-legged princes, who were sturdy though small, 'Bring me in the
royal rag-bag: I must snip and stitch and cut and contrive.' So these two
young princes tugged at the royal rag-bag, and lugged it in; and the
Princess Alicia sat down on the floor, with a large pair of scissors and a
needle and thread, and snipped and stitched and cut and contrived, and
made a bandage, and put it on, and it fitted beautifully; and so when it
was all done, she saw the king her papa looking on by the door.
'Alicia.'
'Yes, papa.'
'What have you been doing?'
'Snipping, stitching, cutting, and contriving, papa.'
'Where is the magic fish-bone?'
'In my pocket, papa.'
'I thought you had lost it?'
'O, no, papa.'
'Or forgotten it?'
'No, indeed, papa.'
After that, she ran up-stairs to the duchess, and told her what had
passed, and told her the secret over again; and the duchess shook her
flaxen curls, and laughed with her rosy lips.
Well! and so another time the baby fell under the grate. The seventeen
young princes and princesses were used to it; for they were almost
always falling under the grate or down the stairs; but the baby was not
used to it yet, and it gave him a swelled face and a black eye. The way
the poor little darling came to tumble was, that he was out of the
Princess Alicia's lap just as she was sitting, in a great coarse apron that
quite smothered her, in front of the kitchen-fire, beginning to peel the
turnips for the broth for dinner; and the way she came to be doing that
was, that the king's cook had run away that morning with her own true
love, who was a very tall but very tipsy soldier. Then the seventeen
young princes and princesses, who cried at everything that happened,
cried and roared. But the Princess Alicia (who couldn't help crying a
little herself) quietly called to them to be still, on account of not
throwing back the queen up-stairs, who was fast getting well, and said,
'Hold your tongues, you wicked little monkeys, every one of you, while
I examine baby!' Then she examined baby, and found that he hadn't

broken anything; and she held cold iron to his poor dear eye, and
smoothed his poor dear face, and he presently fell asleep in her arms.
Then she said to the seventeen princes and princesses, 'I am afraid to let
him down yet, lest he should wake and feel pain; be good, and you
shall all be cooks.' They jumped for joy when they heard that, and
began making themselves cooks' caps out of old newspapers. So to one
she gave the salt-box, and to one she gave the barley, and to one she
gave the herbs, and to one she gave the turnips, and to one she gave the
carrots, and to one she gave the onions, and to one she gave the
spice-box, till they were all cooks, and all running about at work, she
sitting in the middle, smothered in the great coarse apron, nursing baby.
By and by the broth was done; and the baby woke up, smiling, like an
angel, and was trusted to the sedatest princess to hold, while the other
princes and princesses were squeezed into a far-off corner to look at the
Princess Alicia turning out the saucepanful of broth, for fear (as they
were always getting into trouble) they should get splashed and scalded.
When the broth came tumbling out, steaming beautifully, and smelling
like a nosegay good to eat, they clapped their hands. That made the
baby clap his hands; and that, and his looking as if he had a comic
toothache, made all the princes and princesses laugh. So the Princess
Alicia said, 'Laugh and be good; and after dinner we will make him a
nest on the floor