【英文原著类】THE LIGHT PRINCESS(光明公主).pdf

THE LIGHT PRINCESS
THE LIGHT PRINCESS
E MACDONALD
1
THE LIGHT PRINCESS
1. What! No Children?
Once upon a time, so long ago that I have quite forgotten the date,
there lived a king and queen who had no children.
And the king said to himself, "All the queens of my acquaintance have
children, some three, some seven, and some as many as twelve; and my
queen has not one. I feel ill-used." So he made up his mind to be cross
with his wife about it. But she bore it all like a good patient queen as she
was. Then the king grew very cross indeed. But the queen pretended to
take it all as a joke, and a very good one too.
"Why don't you have any daughters, at least?" said he. "I don't say
sons; that might be too much to expect."
"I am sure, dear king, I am very sorry," said the queen.
"So you ought to be," retorted the king; "you are not going to make a
virtue of that, surely."
But he was not an ill-tempered king, and in any matter of less moment
would have let the queen have her own way with all his heart. This,
however, was an affair of state.
The queen smiled.
"You must have patience with a lady, you know, dear king," said she.
She was, indeed, a very nice queen, and heartily sorry that she could
not oblige the king immediately.
2
THE LIGHT PRINCESS
2. Won't I, Just?
The king tried to have patience, but he eeded very badly. It was
more than he deserved, therefore, when, at last, the queen gave him a
daughter--as lovely a little princess as ever cried.
The day drew near when the infant must be christened. The king
wrote all the invitations with his own hand. Of course somebody was
forgotten. Now it does not generally matter if somebody is forgotten, only
you must mind who. Unfortunately, the king forgot without intending to
forget; and so the chance fell upon the Princess Makemnoit, which was
awkward. For the princess was the king's own sister; and he ought not to
have forgotten her. But she had made herself so disagreeable