Resting place? What a mistake! The Driver of the Dream Coach never
rests. You see, there are so many things to do even when he is carrying
no passengers. There are new dreams to invent: queer dreams, funny
dreams, fairy dreams, goblin dreams, happy dreams, exciting dreams,
short dreams, long dreams, brightly colored dreams, and dreams made out
of shadows and mist that vanish as soon as one opens one’s eyes. Then
there is the very bothersome matter of keeping the records straight,
records of those who deserve good dreams, those who need cheering with
ridiculous dreams, and those, alas, who have been bad and naughty and
have to be punished (how the little Driver hates this!) with nightmares.
It is hard to keep all those dreams from getting mixed up, there are so
many of them. Indeed, sometimes, they do get mixed up, and a good child,
who was meant to have a dream as pretty as a pansy or as funny as a
frog, gets a nightmare by mistake. But the Driver of the Dream Coach
tries as hard as he possibly can never to let this happen. He has so
very much to do that he never would catch up with his work no matter how
quickly his beautiful horses galloped from star to star, from world to
world, if there was not some one to help him.
There are little angels who help the Driver of the Dream Coach.
In their gold and white book they keep a record of every one on earth.
As soon as the Driver of the Dream Coach had unharnessed his horses he
went to these angels and planned his next trip. What a busy night it was
to be! If I should use all the paper and all the pencils in the world I
could not begin to tell you about all the dreams he arranged to carry to
the sleeping world.
And yet there was one child who was nearly forgotten, a little Princess
whose name had been written at the top of a new page which the Driver
had neglected to turn in his hurry.
“Surely you are not going to forget the little Princess on her
birthday!” pleaded the little angels, turning the page.
“Oh, dear!” said the Driver. “That will never do; now, will it? And
yet—I simply can’t pack another dream into the Coach. I’m sorry, but I’m
afraid——”
“Oh, dear!” echoed the angels.
“Perhaps——”
Just then one of the youngest angels, who happened to be leaning over
the parapet of Paradise, saw the Princess begin to cry, and took in the
situation instantly. So he hurried to the others and suggested that he
himself should carry a dream to the little Princess.
The Driver of the Dream Coach thought this was a splendid idea and
thanked him again and again for his help.
That is how the seven white dreams of the King’s little daughter were
carried to her by an angel, and as you know (or if you don’t, I will
tell you) the dreams carried in the moonbeam basket of the angels are
the most beautiful of all.
What did the Princess dream?
That you shall hear.
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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