The Prince and the Baker’s Daughter There was once a prince who was very brave, good and handsome. He was quite young, too, and before he settled down to learning how to rule the kingdom which would one day be his, he was sent by his father out a-travelling into the world. The king gave his son a beautiful white horse and a bagful of big gold pieces, and told him to come back when the money was all spent. His mother made him a blue velvet mantle embroidered with silver, and she also gave him a hat with a blue feather in it. “I want my son to look nice when he goes out riding into the world,” she said. He rode away on his white horse and turned to wave his hand to his mother and father before he went over the hill-top. “How handsome he looks,” said his mother, wiping away a tear or two. “Well, that’s nothing to cry about,” said his father, and blew his nose. Then they went back into the palace and continued ruling. The prince rode on and on. Wherever he went people were very nice to him, even when he got beyond the borders of his own kingdom where he was no longer known. It is not every day that a handsome prince comes riding along on a white horse, and moreover with a bagful of fine gold pieces to spend. All the girls ran out to look at him as he passed, and when he stayed anywhere, even for a short time, people seemed to get to know about it at once and asked him to their houses and gave grand parties in his honour and made so much of him altogether that he was in some danger of getting thoroughly spoiled. But he had been very well brought up, and he had a naturally amiable disposition. Besides, he had always been told by his mother that if you are a prince you must try hard to behave as a prince should, and be modest, considerate, and very polite to every one. One morning close on midday, he came to a tiny village which he did not know at all. He was rather hungry after his ride, and as he passed down the narrow little street he became aware of a delicious smell of new bread. It came from the open door of the village baker’s, and as he glanced in he saw a pile of beautiful, crisp new rolls heaped up in a big white basket. He got down off his horse and went in. “I should like to buy one of those nice little rolls,” he said to the baker’s daughter, who stood behind the counter. She was very pretty. She had blue, shining eyes and fair smooth hair, and when she smiled it was like sunshine on a flowery meadow. [Illustration] The prince ate up his roll and then another and yet another, and while he ate he talked to the baker’s daughter. But no one can eat more than three rolls one after another, and at last he felt that the time had come to pay for what he had had and ride on his way. But, as it happened, he had no small change, nothing but a gold piece such as those which he had in his bag.