Story Time - 1

Let me tell you a story... ready?

Once upon a time, there was a little Princess who was very unhappy because she was not as pretty to look at as she thought a little Princess should be. She sat in the garden and was sorrowful and cried a great deal, because she felt sure that no one would ever make her a queen.


One day, she sat by the wall of the garden with her hands in her lap, and was looking very sad. An old woman, very bent and gray, and carrying a bundle, passed along the road outside and looked over the wall.

'Why do you cry, little Princess?" she asked.


'Because I am not beautiful,' the little Princess replied, 'and so I shall never be made a queen.'

"Why do you not go out into the world and find someone who can make you beautiful?" asked the old woman as she started again on her way. And this seemed like such a new adventure that the Princess went out through the garden gate and started down the road.


Before the Princess had gone very far, she overtook a boy. He was stumbling along the road as if it were hard for him to find his way. He put out his hand and touched the Princess' silken sleeve.

'Where are you going?' he asked.

'I am going to find someone who will help me be beautiful. I am not pretty enough to be a queen,' the Princess said.


'Wait a while and and help me,' said the little boy. 'I am blind, and I cannot find my way home.'


So the Princess took the blind boy's hand in hers and walked along with him, leading him very gently, until they came to the cottage by the side of the road where he lived.

Then the Princess went on, hurrying, for she felt that she had lost a lot of time. But before she had gone very far, she saw a little girl standing by the edge of the woods and crying. When the little girl saw the Princess, she looked up and asked, 'Where are you going?'


'I am going to find someone who will help me be beautiful. I am not pretty enough to be a queen,' the Princess said.


'Wait a while and help me,' said the little girl. 'My mother is ill, and I went to the dairy to fetch her some milk and eggs, but I have no money, and they say that I must pay.'


The Princess pulled from her silk bag a bright gold piece. She had but two of them to buy herself food on her journey, but she gave one to the child. 'This is to pay for the milk and eggs,' she said. Then the little girl laughed with happiness, her smile as bright as sunshine.


'Now I must make great haste.' thought the Princess. 'It is getting on in the day and I am no more beautiful than when I started.' But she had gone only a little way when she saw the old woman, who had spoken to her in the morning.

'Did you do as I said?' asked the old woman.

Sadly, the princess replied, 'Yes, but I am still ugly to look at.' And she dropped her head.

'Oh no, you are not,' the old woman said. 'Look!' And she held a mirror before the Princess' face.

A strange thing had happened. The Princess' eyes had grown bright as stars, her hair as shining as the gold piece she had given away. She had grown beautiful as a queen.

I wonder what you make of the story. It made me think of the times when I could have missed out on the joy in the journey and the learning in the process when I was too intent on trying to finish what I set out to do. What do you think?