That was good to begin with. He had only one!
It is usual for kings in fairy stories to be extravagant in queens. And
whenever we hear that there are two queens our hearts begin to sink. One
is sure to be unhappy. But in Grannie's story that danger was past. He
had only one queen.
We next hear that the king had not got any son. At the age of seven I
didn't think there was any need to bother if a man had no son. He might
only have been in the way.
Nor are we greatly excited when we hear that the king has gone away into
the forest to practise austerities in order to get a son. There was only
one thing that would have made me go into the forest, and that was to
get away from my tutor!
But the king left behind with his queen a small girl, who grew up into a
beautiful princess.
Twelve years pass away, and the king goes on practising austerities, and
never thinks all this while of his beautiful daughter. The princess has
reached the full bloom of her youth. The age of marriage has passed,
but the king does not return. And the queen pines away with grief and
cries: "Is my golden daughter destined to die unmarried? Ah me, what a
fate is mine!"
Then the queen sent men to the king to entreat him earnestly to come
back for a single night and take one meal in the palace. And the king
consented.
The queen cooked with her own hand, and with the greatest care,
sixty-four dishes. She made a seat for him of sandal-wood and arranged
the food in plates of gold and cups of silver. The princess stood behind
with the peacock-tail fan in her hand. The king, after twelve years'
absence, came into the house, and the princess waved the fan, lighting
up all the room with her beauty. The king looked in his daughter's face
and forgot to take his food.
At last he asked his queen: "Pray, who is this girl whose beauty shines
as the gold image of the goddess? Whose daughter is she?"
The queen beat her forehead and cried: "Ah, how evil is my fate! Do you
not know your own daughter?"
The king was struck with amazement. He said at last: "My tiny daughter
has grown to be a woman."
"What else?" the queen said with a sigh. "Do you not know that twelve
years have passed by?"
"But why did you not give her in marriage?" asked the king.
"You were away," the queen said. "And how could I find her a suitable
husband?"
The king became vehement with excitement. "The first man I see
to-morrow," he said, "when I come out of the palace shall marry her."
The princess went on waving her fan of peacock feathers, and the king
finished his meal.
The next morning, as the king came out of his palace, he saw the son of
a Brahman gathering sticks in the forest outside the palace gates. His
age was about seven or eight.