Tell Me Another Story | Page 7

the Prince went on, and explained.
"The Princess who comes to play with me must be able to do what I
want her to, and I want her to make my pop-corn balls fresh every day.
Don't bring any Princess who can't," he said.
So they all knew that the matter was decided, for the Prince had a very
strong mind of his own. The Court Messenger started out to find a little
Princess who was sweet tempered, and had blue eyes, and yellow hair
that curled, and was rich, and knew how to make molasses pop-corn
balls.
He thought that he would find the right Princess overnight, but it came
to be weeks and weeks and she was still as far away as ever. The
Princesses who were sweet tempered were apt to have brown hair and
hazel eyes, and if there was a sweet tempered one with blue eyes and
yellow hair that curled she belonged in a Kingdom where there was
very little money. And none of the Princesses had even so much as
heard of molasses pop-corn balls. The Court Messenger grew so
worried that he could neither eat nor sleep, but one day as he wandered

about in foreign places he smelled something like molasses boiling. He
followed the odor and he came to a rich appearing palace. In he went,
without waiting to knock, and beside the kitchen fireplace he
discovered a Princess with blue eyes and yellow hair that curled. She
was stirring molasses in a kettle with one hand, and shaking a corn
popper with the other.
"What are you making?" begged the Messenger in great excitement.
"Molasses pop-corn balls," said the little Princess.
"Are you sweet tempered?" asked the Messenger.
"I never cry, or scold," said the little Princess.
"Then come with me and be the Prince's playmate," said the Messenger.
"We must have a Princess who will make him pop-corn balls every
day."
The little Princess looked up in surprise. "Can the Prince play to me on
a jews-harp?" she asked.
"I do not think his Highness can," said the Messenger.
"Then I can't go with you," said the little Princess. "I will go only to a
Prince who can play on a jews-harp."
"I won't learn to play on a jews-harp," said the little Prince when they
told him about it.
So he was without a sister and a playmate, and every day he grew more
lonely and more unhappy. But he thought a great deal and at last he
said:
"I should like to have that little Princess very much. Will you ask her if
she will come if she does not have to make molasses pop-corn balls?"
Now, all this time, the Princess had been thinking too. When the Court
Messenger gave her the Prince's message, she smiled and said she

would come. "The Prince need not play to me on a jews-harp if he does
not want to," she said.
So they packed her clothes in ten trunks, and she rode in a gold chariot
to the palace of the Prince. The doors were opened wide to greet her,
and through them came the sound of the merriest music. The Princess
clasped her hands in happiness.
"Who is playing the jews-harp?" she asked. "I am so fond of one."
Just then the Prince came in. It had been he who was playing. He had
learned how for her pleasure.
"What are you carrying in that basket?" he asked of the little Princess.
"Some molasses pop-corn balls that I made for you," she said. "And I
will make you some to-morrow, dear Prince."

THE STAR-CHILD
Once upon a time a poor Woodcutter was making his way through a
pine forest. It was winter, and a night of bitter weather. So cold was it
that even the animals and the birds did not know what to make of it.
The little Squirrels who lived inside the tall fir tree kept rubbing each
other's noses to keep warm, and the Rabbits curled themselves up in
their holes and did not even look out of doors.
And as the Woodcutter pressed on toward home, bewailing his lot,
there fell from heaven a very bright and beautiful star. It slipped down
the side of the sky, passing by the other stars, and it seemed to sink
behind a clump of willow trees no more than a stone's throw away.
"Why, there is a crock of gold for whoever finds it," he said, and he
hastened toward it. Stooping down, he placed his hands upon a thing of
gold lying on the white snow. It was a cloak of golden tissue, curiously
wrought with stars, and wrapped in many folds. There was no gold in it,
but only a little child who was