Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17): Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy TalesVarious
General
Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17): Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales
Various
Children's literature
At the end of seven years a great Sayer of Sooth came by on his way to
visit his fairy godmother, and when he heard about Little Boy's sleep he
stood still and uttered a loud Sooth. When Goody Two-Shoes heard it she
was sorry, because it was told her that Little Boy would never wake
until he was carried back to the country of mortals, when he would wake
up at once. Now by this time she had come to love him very much, and was
sorry to part with him, because in seven years he had never spoken one
cross word!
[Illustration: "SHE PUT AROUND LITTLE BOY'S NECK A FAIRY KISS"]
But Sooths must be obeyed; so she sent for a gentle Giant, and told him
to carry Little Boy to the Queen's tailor and to dress him like a fairy
Prince, and to set him down on the roadside near his father's house.
Then when the Giant took him up in his great arms, all sound asleep, she
put around Little Boy's neck a fairy kiss tied fast to a gold chain, and
this was for good luck. After this the Giant walked away, and Goody
Two-Shoes went into the house and cried for two days and a night.
When the Giant came to Common-Folks'-land, he laid Little Boy beside the
high-road and went home. Toward evening, the King's daughter went by,
and seeing Little Boy, who, as I have said, was now grown tall and
dressed all in velvet and jewels, she came and stood by him, and when
she saw the fairy kiss hanging around his neck she knelt down and kissed
him. Then all the old ladies cried, "Fy! for shame!" but you know she
could not help it. As for Little Boy, he kept ever so still, being now
wide awake, but having hopes that she would kiss him again, which she
did, twice. As he still seemed to sleep, he was put in the Princess's
chariot and taken to the King's palace.
At last, when every one had looked at him, they put him on a bed, and
when morning came he opened his eyes, and began to walk around to
stretch his legs. But as he went downstairs he met the King, who said to
him: "Fair Sir, what is the name of thy beautiful self?" To which he
answered: "I am called Prince Little Boy." "Ha! ha!" said the King.
"That was the name of the bad brick-maker. Perchance thou art he." Then
he called his guards, and Little Boy was at once shut up in a huge
tower, for the King was not quite sure, or else he would have put him to
death at once. But after Little Boy had been there three days he put his
head out of a window and saw the Princess in the garden. Then he said:
"Sweet lady, look up."
"Alas!" said she, "they have sent for thy mother, and if she says thou
art Little Boy they will kill thee, and, alas! I love thee."
"Ah!" he cried, "come to this tower at midnight, and cast me kisses a
many through the night; blow a kiss to the north, blow a kiss to the
south, to the east, to the west, from the flower of thy mouth and it may
be that one will float to Fairy-land and fetch us help, for if not, I be
but a dead man."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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