The Magic Fishbone | Page 4

Princesses, "I am afraid to
lay 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 saucepan-full 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 in a corner, and he shall sit in his nest and
see a dance of eighteen cooks." That delighted the young Princes and
Princesses, and they ate up all the broth, and washed up all the plates
and dishes, and cleared away, and pushed the table into a corner, and
then they in their cooks' caps, and the Princess Alicia in the smothering
coarse apron that belonged to the cook that had run away with her own
true love that was the very tall but very tipsy soldier, danced a dance of
eighteen cooks before the angelic baby, who forgot his swelled face
and his black eye, and crowed with joy.
[Illustration: The Dance of the Eighteen Cooks]
And so then, once more the Princess Alicia saw King Watkins the First,
her father, standing in the doorway looking on, and he said: "What have
you been doing, Alicia?"

"Cooking and contriving, Papa."
"What else have you been doing, Alicia?"
"Keeping the children light-hearted, Papa."
"Where is the magic fish-bone, Alicia?"
"In my pocket, Papa."
"I thought you had lost it?"
"O, no, Papa."
"Or forgotten it?"
"No, indeed, Papa."
The King then sighed so heavily, and seemed so low-spirited, and sat
down so miserably, leaning his head upon his hand, and his elbow upon
the kitchen table pushed away in the corner, that the seventeen Princes
and Princesses crept softly out of the kitchen, and left him alone with
the Princess Alicia and the angelic baby.
"What is the matter, Papa?"
"I am dreadfully poor, my child."
"Have you no money at all, Papa?"
[Illustration: "What is the matter, Papa?"]
"None my child."
"Is there no way left of getting any, Papa?"
"No way," said the King. "I have tried very hard, and I have tried all
ways."

When she heard those last words, the Princess Alicia began to put her
hand into the pocket where she kept the magic fish-bone.
"Papa," said she, "when we have tried very hard, and tried all ways, we
must have done our very very best?"
"No doubt, Alicia."
"When we have done our very very best, Papa, and that is not enough,
then I think the right time must have come for asking help of others."
This was the very secret connected with the magic fish-bone, which she
had found out for herself from the good fairy Grandmarina's words, and
which she had so often whispered to her beautiful and fashionable
friend the Duchess.
So she took out of her pocket the magic fish-bone that had been dried
and rubbed and polished till it shone like mother-of-pearl; and she gave
it one little kiss and wished it was quarter day. And immediately it was
quarter day; and the King's quarter's salary came rattling down the
chimney, and bounced into the middle of the floor.
But this was not half of what happened, no not a quarter, for
immediately afterwards the good fairy Grandmarina came riding in, in
a carriage and four (Peacocks), with Mr Pickles's boy up behind,
dressed in silver and gold, with a cocked hat, powdered hair, pink silk
stockings, a jewelled cane, and a nosegay. Down jumped Mr Pickles's
boy with his cocked hat in his hand and wonderfully polite (being
entirely changed by enchantment), and handed Grandmarina out, and
there she stood in her rich