E-text prepared by Susan Carr, Suzanne Shell, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 20836-h.htm or 20836-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/8/3/20836/20836-h/20836-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/8/3/20836/20836-h.zip) TING-A-LING by FRANK R. STOCKTON. Illustrated by E. B. Bensell [Illustration] New York. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1921 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by Frank R. Stockton, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Copyright, 1882, by Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright, 1910, by William S. Stockton. TO THE MEMORY OF ALL GOOD GIANTS, DWARFS, AND FAIRIES This Book _IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED_. TING-A-LING. In a far country of the East, in a palace surrounded by orange groves, where the nightingales sang, and by silvery lakes, where the soft fountains plashed, there lived a fine old king. For many years he had governed with great comfort to himself, and to the tolerable satisfaction of his subjects. His queen being dead, his whole affection was given to his only child, the Princess Aufalia; and, whenever he happened to think of it, he paid great attention to her education. She had the best masters of embroidery and in the language of flowers, and she took lessons on the zithar three times a week. A suitable husband, the son of a neighboring monarch, had been selected for her when she was about two hours old, thus making it unnecessary for her to go into society, and she consequently passed her youthful days in almost entire seclusion. She was now, when our story begins, a woman more beautiful than the roses of the garden, more musical than the nightingales, and far more graceful than the plashing fountains.