WHAT THE PRINCE WANTED.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 50, 13 December 1890, Page 18

WHAT THE PRINCE WANTED.

BY EBANK M. BICKNELL. N old times there lived a little prince who ha<l been made into a spoilt child almost before he had learnt to talk- His father ami mother doted on him with such foolish fondness that they never could refuse him anything he asked for. It mattered not how much inconvenience it caused, all his wishes must be gratified. The king was ready to turn the palace out-of-doors, or to plunge the whole city into a turmoil, if that were necessary, to humour even the slightest whim of his darling son. It was forbidden, under severe penalty, to speak the word ‘ no ’ in presence of the little prince. If one of the loyal counsellors had dared to hint that a little denial would have done the prince no harm once in a while, when his demands were particularly unreasonable, such an offence would have been wotse than high treason, and immediate death would have been its punishment. One day, not long after his ninth summer had passed, the prince went out for a ride. As he was returning home he had an adventure which brought with it most serious results. He was nearing the palace gates, when all at once there started up beside his path a very ragged and ill-look-ing old woman. So suddenly did she appear that she might have come out of the ground, and had she really done so, she could not have been dirtier or more repulsive looking than she was. Startled by this strange figure, the prince’s pony halted, ami before his master could urge him forward again, the old hag had hobbled up ami laid one hand on the saddle bow. Then, outstretching the other, palm upward, she said, with a doleful whine : ‘ Blessings on you, my pretty prince ! May the south wind blow softly for you'all the days of your life ! For the love of charity, bestow a few pence upon a poor creature whose best wish is that you, who have never wanted for anything since you were born, never may want for anything as long as you live.’ Now, although the prince was not by nature bad hearted, the unwise indulgence of his parents had done much to mike him so. Being unused to disagreeable things, he shrank from the touch of this old woman, whose wretched appearance and whining tones made her particularly unpleasant to him. So instead of answering her civilly, he drew quickly baek. exclaiming in disgust: ‘ Get away, you unclean person ! How dare you stop me thus ?’ At the same time he gave his pony a sharp cut, and tried to ride onward. But in some way—it may have been wholly

by accident—the whip struck the beggar-woman across the face. At this she straightened her bent back, and with a wicked light shining from her eyes, she shook her clinched fist at the prince, crying, in a voice that trembled with rage : ‘My curses on you, ungrateful viper ! May the north wind blow harshly for you all the days of your life ! You, who have wanted for nothing since the hour of your birth, the worst wish I have for yon is that the next thing you want you may want till you die.’ The prince was furiously angry at hearing sueh language, and whipped up his pony smartly, thinking to ride over and trample on the insolent beggar who had dared to use it. But the moment she ended her speech the old woman took her band from the saddle, and, stepping back, disappeared as if by magic. Now, whether she was a witch, with power to work evil, or whether she was merely a very good prophet of the weather, no one knows; but certain it is the old woman's words were quickly followed by a marked change in the direction and force of the wind. Ere the prinee had ridden ten rods the mild southerly breeze that hitherto bad been stirring gently the leaves and grass blades veered about until it became a boisterous north wind. And as he was hastening onward a violent gust snatched the prince’s cap from his head, and carried it far away out of sight. Some of his attendants ai once gave chase, but all efforts to recover it were vain. So he was obliged to go home bareheaded, his long hair streaming, and his fair brow buffeted by the fierce gale. About an hour after the prince’s return to the palace a remarkable thing took place. In spite of himself the beggar-woman’s curse had made him uncomfortable, and wishing to be alone he had dismissed all his servants except one, who remained in an ante-chamber next his master’s room, that he might be at hand in case he should be wanted. By and by, after a long and gloomy silence, his highness suddenly raised his head, and opening his lips, said : ‘ I want—’

The attentive valet, who had been watching him through the half-open door, now stepped promptly into the room to receive his commands. But instead of finishing his sentence, the prince made a very queer face, and began again ; ‘ I want—’ ‘ Yes, your royal highness,’ responded the servant anxiously waiting for him to go on. But this the prince seemed quite unable to do. Beyond the point ot repeating his former strange grimace he could not get. After a moment he pronounced for the third time the words, ‘I want :* then, without another distortion of the face, hestopped short, in evident distress. As the same thing continued again and again, and bade fair to do so indefinitely, the puzzled servant grew alarmed, and at last, leaving his master, he went to call some one to his aid. But none of the other servants had any better luck than he in making out what was the matter, or what the prince wanted. In fact, not only were all the footmen, cooks, scullions, coachmen, grooms, and hostlers summoned, but even the guards within the great gates, and a regiment of soldiers from without them, came and racked their brains until their heads ached, in trying to guess what the prince could pos sibly want. Of course the news of this affair was noised about through the palace, till finally it reached the ears of the king and queen. No sooner did the royal pair hear what was going on than they hurried to the apartments of the prince in great alarm. ‘ What does my precious child want ?’ cried the agitated mother, as she ran into the room and threw her arms about the prince. ‘ Whatever he wants be shall have,’ quoth the king; ‘ even though it be the heads of all my court.’ The latter speech made the assembled courtiers rather uneasy, and some of them who, for certain reasons, felt their heads sit a little insecurely on their shoulders, tried to hide themselves behind others more courageous or less agile than they were. This confusion soon subsided, however, for their fears were groundless ; the prince did not want heads, or anything like them. What he did want it seemed quite impossible to discover. The king called his advisers, and had a talk about it, but it was all in vain. Not one, even the.wisest among them, was able to conjecture what the prince wanted, fo everj- suggestion that could be offered he only shook his head. What made the thing especially puzzling was the fact that, apparently, he had everything he could possibly wish for already. At last, in despair, the king promised a large reward to anyone who should solve the riddle. But even that step was useless ; no one succeeded in winning the reward, and the riddle r emained as perplexing as ever. Meantime the affair caused a great stir throughout the king’s dominions. Everybody, high or low, rich or poor, was interested in it. There was but one topic of conversation for all occasions. Nobody ever thought of discussing business, or of talking about the weather now. When people went to each other’s houses or met in the street, instead of saying, 1 It has been a lively day in the marketplace. neighbour,’ or, ‘ Friend, we are likely to have rain soon,’ they put to each other such queries as, ■ What do you suppose the prince wants, neighbour!' or, ‘ Friend, have they found out yet what the prince wants?’ Yet these questions, so often asked, were never answered to the least purpose,* for if anyone had an idea on the subject he kept it to himself until he had had a chance to go to the palaee and try for the reward. There are always plenty of wiseacres to he found who think themselves a little more knowing than anyone else, so before very long the guesses as to what the prince wanted became so numerous that the king was compelled to order

two great books to be opened to record them in. While one of these was being written in by certain court officials chosen to receive the guesses, the other was being read from in the prince’s apartments by other officials, who stood before his highness, and asked him if he wanted this, that, or the other thing, according to the suggestions that had been made on the previous day. But all of this trouble might just as well have been spared : no one seemed to be able to bit ufton the right thing, or get even an inkling of what the pool prince could possible want. Before long his health began to fail. He lost all appetite, he could not sleep, he grew so pale and thin that his distressed parents were wild with anxiety. But just at the time when things were at their worst, and when every one thought the Prince was going to die, relief came to him in a way that hardly could have been hoped for. ft chanced that the old woman who had cursed him fell ill. It also came to pass that she was nursed and cared for by a gentle and kind-hearted maiden who was a granddaughter of a king. In time, the old woman got well, thanks to the good little maid, and to show that she was not wholly a bad person, she determined to reward her. It happened that the old king, the maiden’s grandfather, had a verysmall kingdom and a very large family. Consequently he had more than he could do to provide for his sons and daughters, to say nothing about bis grandchildren, so this maiden’s lot in life did not look very brilliant. For this reason and others the old woman resolved on taking a veryunusual step. It was quite against all rule in such cases, but she decided to lift the weight of her curse from the prince and serve the maiden at one and the same time. Perhaps she had begun to be sorry for her harsh treatment of the former, who was really less to be blamed than his over-indulgent parents. At any rate, she gave to the maiden a certain magic power, with directions for using it, and sent her off to cure the prince. In due time the maiden arrived at court, where she boldly announced that she knew just what the prince wanted. Some weeks had passed since anything had been done for the sufferer, and after so many had tried and failed, no one had the least idea that the new-comer would succeed. Still there was some interest felt as to how- the youthful doctress proposed to set to work, and everybody wanted to be present and see her attempt the cure.’ But the maiden battled all curiosity by- insisting that she must be left alone with her patient. This she did by order of the old woman, who wanted her remedy kept a secret for the time. Accordingly, she was shown into the presence of the prince, and the doors were closed after her. But this did not prevent a good deal of listening at keyholes by certain inquisitive persons, who were presently startled nearly out of their wits by a tremendous and quite incomprehensible noise. While they were trying to guess what this could possibly mean, the maiden opened the door softly and came out. ‘ The prince has fallen asleep,’ she said. ‘lfhe is left in quiet he will awake feeling much better, and then, with proper care he will soon recover his usual health.’ These words were entirely true. Alter a long slumber his highness awoke greatly refreshed, and from that day he began to mend, until, within a fortnight, he was as well as he ever had been in his life. In one respect, indeed, he was vastly better. His sufferings had taught him a lesson he did not forget. Thenceforth he was much more thoughtful and considerate in his behaviour, and was careful to keep his wants within reasonable bounds, so as not to give unnecessary trouble to others. The result of which was that whereas formerly he had been feared and disliked by his father’s subjects, he now grew to be much beloved by them. Meantime the little maiden stayed at court, and was brought up as the companion and playmate of the prince until she was a little maiden no longer. Then the two were married, which was just what the old woman had been planning for from the first, although, of course, she said nothing to the maiden about that. On the wedding day, being released from her vow of secrecy, the young bride told her father-in-law what the prince had wanted, and how she had cured him of his malady. Her explanation in brief was this : In riding home bareheaded against the north wind the prince had caught a bad cold, and, for the first time in his life, he had wanted to sneeze. This he had been prevented from doing by the old woman’s curse. But the effects of the curse had been overcome, and the patient at once relieved, when the maiden gave him a pinch of the magic powder—a powder, by-the-way, which in these times people are wont to call snutt'.