The Grey Fairy Book | Page 4

set before him in the garden, and
when he felt rested he got up, and began to explore the house, which
was famous throughout the whole kingdom for its age and beauty. He
opened one door after the other, admiring the old rooms, when he came
to a handle that would not turn. He stooped and peeped through the
keyhole to see what was inside, and was greatly astonished at
beholding a beautiful girl, clad in a dress so dazzling that he could
hardly look at it.
The dark gallery seemed darker than ever as he turned away, but he
went back to the kitchen and inquired who slept in the room at the end
of the passage. The scullery maid, they told him, whom everybody
laughed at, and called ‘ Donkey Skin;' and though he perceived there
was some strange mystery about this, he saw quite clearly there was
nothing to be gained by asking any more questions. So he rode back to
the palace, his head filled with the vision he had seen through the
keyhole.
All night long he tossed about, and awoke the next morning in a high
fever. The queen, who had no other child, and lived in a state of
perpetual anxiety about this one, at once gave him up for lost, and
indeed his sudden illness puzzled the greatest doctors, who tried the
usual remedies in vain. At last they told the queen that some secret
sorrow must be at the bottom of all this, and she threw herself on her
knees beside her son's bed, and implored him to confide his trouble to
her. If it was ambition to be king, his father would gladly resign the

cares of the crown, and suffer him to reign in his stead; or, if it was
love, everything should be sacrificed to get for him the wife he desired,
even if she were daughter of a king with whom the country was at war
at present!
‘Madam,' replied the prince, whose weakness would hardly allow him
to speak, ‘do not think me so unnatural as to wish to deprive my father
of his crown. As long as he lives I shall remain the most faithful of his
subjects! And as to the princesses you speak of, I have seen none that I
should care for as a wife, though I would always obey your wishes,
whatever it might cost me.'
‘Ah! my son,' cried she, ‘we will do anything in the world to save your
life ----and ours too, for if you die, we shall die also.'
‘Well, then,' replied the prince, ‘I will tell you the only thing that will
cure me ---a cake made by the hand of "Donkey Skin." ‘
‘Donkey Skin?' exclaimed the queen, who thought her son had gone
mad; ‘and who or what is that?'
‘Madam,' answered one of the attendants present, who had been with
the prince at the farm, "'Donkey Skin" is, next to the wolf, the most
disgusting creature on the face of the earth. She is a girl who wears a
black, greasy skin, and lives at your farmer's as hen-wife.'
‘Never mind,' said the queen; ‘my son seems to have eaten some of her
pastry. It is the whim of a sick man, no doubt; but send at once and let
her bake a cake.'
The attendant bowed and ordered a page to ride with the message.
Now it is by no means certain that ‘Donkey Skin' had not caught a
glimpse of the prince, either when his eyes looked through the keyhole,
or else from her little window, which was over the road. But whether
she had actually seen him or only heard him spoken of, directly she
received the queen's command, she flung off the dirty skin, washed
herself from head to foot, and put on a skirt and bodice of shining silver.
Then, locking herself into her room, she took the richest cream, the
finest flour, and the freshest eggs on the farm, and set about making her
cake.
As she was stirring the mixture in the saucepan a ring that she
sometimes wore in secret slipped from her finger and fell into the
dough. Perhaps ‘Donkey Skin' saw it, or perhaps she did not; but, any
way, she went on stirring, and soon the cake was ready to be put in the

oven. When it was nice and brown she took off her dress and put on her
dirty skin, and gave the cake to the page, asking at the same time for
news of the prince. But the page turned his head aside, and would not
even condescend to answer.
The page rode like the wind, and as soon as he arrived at the palace he
snatched up a silver tray