_In which we see how a wicked uncle is punished and the little lame
prince comes into his own._
Many years ago the king and queen of a certain country were very
sad because they had no little son who would become king after
they were dead. But at last one day a little prince was born which
rejoiced the hearts of his parents greatly.
During a great feast the people wanted to see the little prince,
and they crowded around him so close that the nurse dropped him and
hurt his leg. They thought nothing of this for a while, but as he
grew up to be a large boy and wanted to play like other boys it was
found that he was lame and had to go around on crutches. The people
loved him very much, and called him “Our lame prince.”
After a while the king and queen died, and the prince’s uncle, who
was a bad man, came in with his followers, and in spite of the
tears of the people, sent the little prince away and confined him
in a tall tower in a desert region.
One night as he was sleeping with his windows open he was awakened
by a tap on his shoulder. He sat up in bed and saw standing by him
a queer little old woman in a gray cloak. She said to him,
“Little prince, I am your fairy godmother, and I want you to come
with me and ride over your kingdom on my cloak.”
She spread the gray cloak out on the floor and she and the prince
sat down on it. The fairy waved her wand and the cloak flew out of
the window, taking them both along. Over the desert and forest and
into the town they went. She and the prince were invisible so long
as they stood on the cloak. They flew into the palace yard and into
the great room where a ball was going on and everybody was dancing
and feasting. Nobody could see them of course.
The old uncle had told the people that the lame prince was dead,
and had ordered them to come to this feast and dance whether they
liked it or not. As the cloak carried the prince and the old fairy
godmother into the room the prince heard his uncle say: “I tell you
he is dead! He fell off the tower and broke his neck.”
The prince stepped off the cloak and said loudly: “No, I am not
dead! I am here, alive and well.”
The people saw him standing in their midst and set up so great a
shout that the old uncle was seized with fear and trembling.
“Our prince is alive! long live our lame prince!” shouted all the
people.
The old uncle heard them cry and ran out of the palace and into the
yard, and into the street, and on into the forest, and so far as we
know he may be running yet.
The prince became king, but he never heard anything more of his
fairy godmother and her gray cloak.