sort of boy, for the walls of the square red rock fell down as flat as
the walls of a card house, and he found himself walking in a beautiful
cherry orchard, with bright green grass under his feet and showers of
white blossoms falling softly from above, with a blue and grey sky
overhead, and the sound of bees in the air. Under the largest cherry
tree sat a solemn little girl in a stiff white frock, with a large red
sunshade spread over her. The Prince looked at her doubtfully. If she
had been an ordinary little girl in a pinafore, with a laugh in her
voice, he would have asked her to play with him at once; but it was
impossible to be as friendly as that with a little girl in a stiff
white frock. What he finally did was what he always did when he was in
a difficulty--he began to laugh. The little girl only stared at him
more solemnly than before; and for the first time in his life Prince
Charming felt that laughing was a little out of place.
"Will you come and play with me, Little Wisdom?" he said, taking off
his crown and making her his best court bow.
"I never play," answered the little girl, who possessed all the gifts
of Fairyland.
"That is a pity," observed the Prince, "for it is the only thing worth
doing. What do you do all day if you don't play?"
"I think," answered Little Wisdom, gravely. "I think about everything
in the world; and when I have come to the end I begin all over again."
"How queer!" said the Prince. "I have never thought about anything in
my whole life. It is much better to laugh."
"Is it?" asked Little Wisdom, and she smoothed out the folds of her
stiff white frock thoughtfully. After thinking all day long for eleven
years it seemed as though it might make a change to learn to laugh.
"Do you know," continued the Prince, "that you have all the gifts of
Fairyland? That is why I am the stupidest boy in the world."
"I know," said Little Wisdom without seeming at all surprised, which
was, of course, only natural, for when one knows everything in the
world there is nothing left to be surprised at.
"If the sun had shone straight on my christening day," said Prince
Charming, "I should have had all the gifts of Fairyland instead of you."
"I know," said Little Wisdom again. It seemed to her very unnecessary
to talk so much about things that she had always known without being
told.
"And if I had all the gifts of Fairyland instead of you, I should have
learnt to be serious," continued Prince Charming.
"Perhaps you would," said Little Wisdom. She was beginning to wonder
if all stupid boys were as nice as this little Prince, who seemed to
take it for granted that she wanted to go on talking to him.
"Of course," continued Prince Charming, "I should not think of
depriving you of any of the gifts from Fairyland; but if you will come
back to the palace with me and teach me how to be serious I will give
you the wymps' gift in exchange. It is not a very nice present,
perhaps," he added humbly, "because it makes everybody complain of you
so much; but it is the only gift I have to offer you."
"And what is the wymps' gift?" asked Little Wisdom. She was quite
interested now, for here at last was something that she did not know.
The Prince answered her with a peal of laughter; and Little Wisdom
began to feel decidedly odd. First of all, she felt a curious tickling
somewhere at the back of her head, and then a widening out of the
thinking lines on her forehead, and then a twitching sensation round
the corners of her mouth, and then--but it is not difficult to guess
what happened next. It takes all the fairies in Fairyland to make a
little girl wise when she is only eleven years old; but even a stupid
little Prince without an idea in his head can teach her to laugh!
Now, when the peasant and his wife heard their daughter laughing in the
cherry orchard, they came hurrying out to see what could be the cause
of such a wonderful event. All the people in the village came running
too--men and women, boys and girls, one on the top of the other; and
they stood round in a ring and stared, while the merry little Prince
and the wise little girl in the stiff white frock laughed at nothing at
all.
"What is the meaning of it all?" asked the good people. "Is it the
fairies' doing?"
"Nothing of the sort," answered the Prince, again taking off his crown
and making them all his best court bow. "It is only because the sun
shone crookedly on my christening day. That is why I have come to
fetch Little Wisdom. I really hope you have no objection?"
He said this so very charmingly that everybody felt it would be most
impolite to object; besides, Little Wisdom had taken the Prince's hand
and seemed to have settled the question already. As for her parents,
they were overjoyed at the idea.
"After all," said her father, "the child will make some stir in the
world." His wife laughed and cried at the same moment.
"We shall lose Little Wisdom," she said; "but, at least, she will learn
to be like other children."
Prince Charming was as usual in a great hurry, for he could never
endure to wait for anything except his lessons; so he turned to the
nearest cherry tree and asked it to tell him the way home.
"If you don't know the way home without being told, you are not at all
the right sort of boy," answered the cherry tree. Of course, as we
know already, Prince Charming was the right sort of boy; and the very
next minute he marched once more into the royal palace, and by his side
tripped a sedate little girl in a stiff white frock.
"I have found Little Wisdom," he announced to his parents and the court
in general, as they sat over their afternoon tea. "She is going to
stay here and play with me for ever and ever. Isn't it fun?"
"The boy will never be serious," sighed the King, although he looked
with approval at the solemn face of the little girl in the stiff white
frock.
"I will teach him to be serious," said Little Wisdom, "because he has
already taught me how to laugh."
But she never did teach him to be serious, for Prince Charming did
nothing but laugh to the end of his days. This did not, however,
matter quite so much as might be supposed, for when one plays all day
long with some one who knows everything there is to know, one need not
be so very wise oneself. And when the time came for Prince Charming to
rule the country, the Queen who sat beside him on the throne was a wise
and beautiful maiden in a stiff white frock. So the Prince laughed as
much as before, and the country was governed with all the wisdom of the
fairies.
[Transcriber's note: the HTML version of this ebook contains scans of
the publisher's 10-page catalogue of children's books.]
End of Project Gutenberg's All the Way to Fairyland, by Evelyn Sharp