Produced by Meredith Bach, Asad Razzaki and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) PRINCE VANCE [Illustration] PRINCE VANCE The Story of a Prince with a Court in his Box BY ELEANOR PUTNAM and ARLO BATES _ILLUSTRATED BY FRANK MYRICK_ BOSTON ROBERTS BROTHERS 1888 _Copyright, 1888_, BY ARLO BATES. University Press: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. _TO THE BOY ORIC_ _Dear son, this twisted, tangled web of whims For you was woven while you scarcely knew The simplest speech men use; but infant limbs, That round and smooth in dimpled fairness grew, Waved for all word in a babe's perfect glee, So wondrous sweet to see._ _It is not stranger than this world must seem To one who its vagaries first does scan; It is less weird than the enchanted dream Which life may change to ere you be a man. Such as it is, take it for this alone,-- That it is all your own._ _Those who together wrought its colors gay, And its fantastic warp and woof entwined, May not again for you in work or play Together labor. Yet the loving mind In which they then were one will still be one Till life and sense be done._ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page THE FAIRY COPETTA AND THE PRINCE _Frontispiece_ INITIAL: Chapter I 15 INITIAL: Chapter II 20 "'Come,' he said to the Prince, in rather an injured tone" 21 "He picked up the poor tutor, and putting him on the window-sill laughed at him" 24 TAILPIECE: "'It is in here,' the Blue Wizard said, holding out a pretty gold bonbon box" 25 INITIAL: Chapter III 26 THE ROYAL TABLE, WITH THE COURT SHRINKING 27 "'Oh, as to that,' the Blue Wizard answered carelessly, giving the King in turn a bath in the finger-bowl" 31 TAILPIECE: "He seated his royal mother on the top of the sugar-bowl" 33 INITIAL: Chapter IV 34 TAILPIECE: THE HISSING SWANS 40 INITIAL: Chapter V 41 "The Lord Chancellor, who seemed to be always in trouble, picked some sort of quarrel with a large green grasshopper" 44 "He moved from a bunch of thistles which he had carefully stripped to the next" 46 INITIAL: Chapter VI 50