_If we desire to run in a race we should keep our minds free from
all diverting influences._
There was once a king who had a daughter so beautiful that
everybody loved her, and all the princes far and near were anxious
to marry her. The young princess was not so eager to get married,
and so she gave out that she would not marry any man unless he
could beat her in a foot race.
She was a very swift runner; nobody had ever beaten her in a race,
though many had tried. She could run almost as fast as the wind and
could easily outstrip the wild animals in her father’s forests. She
announced that anybody might run against her for her hand, but that
any one who failed must have his head cut off.
And now the young men came to run with her. There was a race every
day and sometimes two, but the young girl always won, and the
headsman was ready with his ax to chop off the head of the young
man who failed to beat the princess in the race. It looked as if
the pile of heads would be as big as a house if it kept on at that
rate.
There was a poor young man who heard about the princess and wanted
to try his fortune in the race. He was very good looking and a fine
runner himself, besides which he had some sense which is of much
importance in a race as we shall see.
He gathered a bunch of roses, and had a silken girdle made, and
took a bag with a gold ball in it, and knocked at the door of the
palace.
“I have come to race with the princess,” he said. “And I am ready
now to try my fortune.”
“You will lose your head,” said the princess, “though I hope not,”
she added as she looked at the young man.
Well, the race began, and the princess flew on ahead of the young
man. He was just behind her and threw the bunch of roses in front
of her flying feet. She stopped to pick them up and fasten them in
her belt. Then she ran on, overtook the young man and was again
ahead of him. This time he threw the girdle in front of her. She
stopped to pick that up, too, and to fasten the rose in it. Then
she ran on again and overtook the young man and was about to pass
him in the race.
He dropped the bag with the gold ball inside. The girl stopped and
picked up the bag; she took out the ball and began to play with it.
She sat down on the grass and tossed it up and caught it in her
fingers, while the young man ran on to the goal.
When he came back to get her she was still playing with the ball,
and it seemed to everybody that she did not mind losing the race at
all.