March, 2007
The Princess Rosette - A Fairy Story
I.-- The home on the farm
"So you are going to the court of the king, your father, are you, Rosette," she said.
"Yes, my dear godmother," was the reply; "I am going to make a visit of three days."
"And what preparation have you made?"
Rosette hastened to her foster-mother with the letter and read it, and was at once met with the question, "Do you want to go?"
"You can see," answered the king's poor daughter, pointing to the trunk that still stood open. The fair smiled, drew a bottle from her pocket and said, "I want my Rosette to make a sensation by her elegant attire. This is not worthy of her."
Then she opened the bottle and poured a drop of its contents on the dress, and immediately it was changed into a coarse, wrinkled, bright yellow material. Another drop on the stockings turned them into coarse blue woolen stockings, and the bouquet was changed to a chicken's wing, and the shoes into great coarse, list shoes by this transforming liquid.
"See," said the fairy, with a gracious air, "How I wish my Rosette to appear. I want you to wear all these fine things, my child; and to complete your toilet, here is a necklace and bracelets and an ornament with which to fasten on your head-dress."
As she said this, she took from her pocket a necklace made of nuts, a rough ornament for the hair, and bracelets made of dried beans, and put them all into the trunk. Then she kissed Rosette's forehead and left her and her foster-mother looking at each other in perfect amazement.
At last the woman burst into tears and exclaimed, "She has taken great pains to give me trouble! I've spent all my strength on that dress for nothing! O, my poor Rosette! Don't go to court; pretend you are sick."
"No," replied Rosette, "that would not be treating my godmother well; and I am sure that what she does it for my good, for she is much wiser than I am. So I will go and wear everything she has told me to wear."
The question settled, Rosette troubled herself no more about her clothes, but lay down and feel into a deep, quiet sleep.
She was hardly dressed, the next morning, when the king's coach came for her; and she kissed her foster-mother good by, had her trunk put into the coach, and in a few moments was gone.
( To be continued next month)
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