The Laughing Prince | Page 8

around to the Princess's way of thinking. In
fact it soon seemed to him that Stefan had been his choice from the first

and when one of his councilors remarked: "Then, Your Majesty, there's
no use sending word to the neighboring kings that the Princess has
reached a marriageable age and would like to look over their sons," the
Tsar flew into an awful temper and roared:
"Wow! Wow! You blockhead! Neighboring kings, indeed, and their
good-for-nothing sons! No, siree! The husband I want for my daughter
is an honest farmer lad who knows how to work and how to play!
That's the kind of son-in-law we need in this kingdom!"
So Stefan and the little Princess were married and from that day the
castle was no longer gloomy but rang with laughter and merriment.
Presently the people of the kingdom, following the example of their
rulers, were laughing, too, and cracking jokes and, strange to say, they
soon found they were working all the better for their jollity.
Laughter grew so fashionable that even Mihailo and Jakov were forced
to take it up. They didn't do it very well but they practised at it
conscientiously. Whenever people talked about Stefan, they always
pushed forward importantly and said:
"Ho! Ho! Ho! Do you mean Stefan, the Laughing Prince? Ha! Ha! Ha!
Why, do you know, he's our own brother!"
As for Militza, the Princess had her come to the castle and said to her:
"I owe all my happiness to you, my dear, for you it was who knew that
of course I would laugh at Stefan's nonsense! What sensible girl
wouldn't?"

BEAUTY AND THE HORNS
[Illustration]
The Story of an Enchanted Maiden

BEAUTY AND THE HORNS
There was once a rich man who when he was dying called his son to his
bedside and said:
"Danilo, my son, I am leaving you my riches. The only thing I ask of
you is this: close your ears to all reports of an enchanted maiden who is
known as Peerless Beauty and when the time comes that you wish to
marry choose for wife some quiet sensible girl of your native village."
Now if the father had not mentioned Peerless Beauty all might have
been well. Danilo might never have heard of her and after a time he
would probably have fallen in love with a girl of his native village and
married her. As it was, after his father's death he kept saying to himself:
"Peerless Beauty, the enchanted maiden of whom my father warned me!
I wonder is she really as beautiful as all that! I wonder where she
lives!"
He thought about her until he could think of nothing else.
"Peerless Beauty! Peerless Beauty! Oh, I must see this enchanted
maiden even if it costs me my life!"
His father had a brother, a wise old man, who was supposed to know
everything in the world.
"I will go to my uncle," the young man said. "Perhaps he will tell me
where I can find Peerless Beauty."
So he went to his uncle and said:
"My dear uncle, my father as he lay dying told me about a wonderful
maiden called Peerless Beauty. Can you tell me where she lives
because I want to see her for myself and judge whether she is as
beautiful as my father said."
His uncle looked at him gravely and shook his head.

"My poor boy, how can I tell you where that enchanted maiden lives
when I know it would mean death to you if ever you saw her? Think no
more about her but go, find some suitable maid in the village, and
marry her like a sensible young man."
But his uncle's words, far from dissuading Danilo, only excited him the
more.
"If my uncle knows where Peerless Beauty lives," he thought, "other
men also know."
So one by one he went to all the old men in the village and asked them
what they knew of Peerless Beauty. One by one they shook their heads
and told him that Peerless Beauty was no maiden for him to be thinking
about.
"Put her out of your mind," they said. "These enchanted maidens are a
snare to young men. What you want to do is marry some quiet
industrious girl here in the village and settle down like a sensible young
man."
But the oftener Danilo heard this advice, the more firmly convinced he
became that it was just what he did not want to do.
"Time enough to settle down after I've seen Peerless Beauty," he told
himself. "She must be beautiful indeed, or all these old men would not
be so anxious to keep me from seeing her. Well, if they won't tell me
where she is, I'll go out