blue fairy tale book

Chapter 40 Baby Prince (1)
Once upon a time there was a king who was so just and merciful that his subjects called him "the merciful king."One day, while he was out hunting, a little white rabbit, being pursued by his dog, jumped into his arms for protection.The king stroked it tenderly and said to it:

"Well, little rabbit, you come to me for protection, and I must not allow anyone to hurt you."

He took it back to the palace, and put it in a pretty little house, and fed it with all kinds of good things.

That night, when he was alone in his room, a beautiful woman suddenly appeared in front of him.Her gown was white as snow, and on her head was a wreath of white roses.The good King was very much surprised to see her, for he knew that the door of his chamber was shut, and he could not understand how she had come in.She said to him:

"I'm Fairy Truth, and I happened to be passing through the woods while you were out hunting. I wanted to see if you were as kind as everyone said, so I turned into a bunny and hopped into your arms Seek protection because I know that people who are kind to animals are kinder to their fellow man. If you refuse to help me, I can be sure that you are an evil person. I thank you for the kindness you have shown me , for this reason I will always regard you as a friend. As long as you tell me what you want, I will promise to give you what."

"Ma'am," said the good King, "as you are a fairy, you no doubt know all my wishes.

I have only one son and I love him so much that I call him 'Baby Prince'.If you're really that nice and would do me a favor, I beg you to be his friend too. "

The Fairy answered, "Very willingly. I will make your son the handsomest, richest, or most powerful prince in the whole world, whichever you choose for him."

"None of that is what I want for my son," replied the merciful king, "and I would be grateful to you from the bottom of my heart if you would make him the best prince possible. If he were a wicked man, so rich, handsome, or possessed of the whole world What is the use of all the kingdoms? You know very well that he will not be happy. Only a kind man can be truly satisfied."

"Very true," replied the fairy, "but I have no power to make the 'Baby Prince' a merciful man, unless he is willing to help me. He must make his own efforts to become a merciful man, and I can only promise him advice , Blame him for making mistakes. If he does not correct his mistakes and does not punish himself, I can also punish him."

The merciful king was very pleased with this promise.He died shortly thereafter.

"Baby Prince" is extremely sad, because he loves his father deeply, and if he can let the kind king be with him forever, he will willingly give up all the kingdoms and gold and silver treasures.

Two days later, when the Prince had gone to bed, the Fairy suddenly appeared before him and said:
"I promised your father to treat you as a friend. To fulfill my promise, I brought you a gift."

As she spoke, she put a small ring on his finger.

"Take good care of this ring," she said, "it is more precious than diamonds. It pricks your finger every time you misbehave. After it pricks you, if you continue to do evil, would lose my friendship, and I would become your enemy."

Saying this, the fairy disappeared, leaving behind the astonished "Baby Prince".

For a while he behaved so well that the ring was not pierced to his satisfaction, and his subjects called him "happy darling prince."

One day, however, he went out hunting and found nothing, which made him very bad.He seemed to feel the ring tighten a little as he rode on, but it didn't sting him so he didn't notice it.When he got home and went into his room, his little dog Bei Bei ran to meet him and danced around him.

"Go away!" said the Prince very roughly, "I don't need you, you are in the way."

The poor puppy didn't understand what was going on, and pulled at his coat to make him at least have a look at him, which angered the "Baby Prince" so much that he kicked him hard.

The ring pricked him instantly like a pin.He was so taken aback that he sat down in a corner of the room, feeling so ashamed of himself.

"I think the fairies are laughing at me," he thought. "I just kicked that nasty animal, and there must be nothing wrong! If I am not allowed to beat my own dog, then I am the ruler of a great country." What's the point?"

"I'm not kidding you." A voice answered "Baby Prince" thought. "You've made three mistakes. First, you're angry because you didn't get what you wanted, and you thought all people and animals existed just to make you happy; second, you got really angry, which is really It's inappropriate; in the end, you're cruelly treating a poor little animal who deserves no abuse at all."

"I know you're high above a little dog, but if it's taken for granted and allowed to be abusive to all creatures below them by the great, I can beat you up or kill you right now. death, because the status of fairies is higher than that of people. The advantage of having a big empire is not to be able to do evil things at will, but to do as much as a human being can."

The prince saw how unruly he was, and promised to try to behave better in the future, but he didn't keep his promise.In fact, he was raised by a stupid nanny who spoiled him when he was very young.As long as he wants anything, he will cry, restless, beat his chest, and she will do everything possible to meet his requirements, making him very willful.And she told him from morning to night that one day he would be king, and that kings were very happy, because everyone must obey and respect them, and no one could stop them from doing what they wanted.

When the prince grew up to a sensible age, he understood that there is nothing worse than pride, stubbornness and conceit, and he really wanted to work hard to overcome these shortcomings of his own.But by this time all his faults have become habits, and a bad habit is hard to get rid of.It's not that he was born with a bad character. When he didn't obey the rules, he also felt really sad, saying:

"Every day I have to battle my anger and pride and it makes me sad. If I had been punished for those tantrums as a kid, it wouldn't bother me so much now."

The ring pierced him often, and sometimes he stopped the mistake he made immediately, but other times he just ignored it.Strangely enough, it only pricked him lightly when he made a small mistake, but it bled his fingers when he made a big mistake.Finally, tired of the constant reminders and wanting to get his way, he tosses the ring aside.Freed from the mocking prick of the ring, he considered himself the happiest man.He did whatever stupid thing came to his mind, and in the end he became so bad that no one liked him anymore.

One day, while the prince was walking, he saw a young girl of incomparable beauty, and he immediately decided to marry her.Her name was Celia, and she was not only beautiful but also kind.

"Baby Prince" thought that if he offered to make her his queen, she would think she was too happy.But she said without fear:

"Your Majesty, I am just a shepherdess, a poor girl, and I will not marry you."

"Don't you like me?" asked the prince, who was greatly annoyed by the girl's answer.

"No, Prince," replied Celia, "I must admit that you are very handsome. But if I see you doing evil every day, make me hate you, despise you, then riches and all those gorgeous things you have to give me What is the use of clothes and stately carriages?"

These words made the prince so angry that he ordered the officers to arrest her and take her to the palace.All day long he was angry at the thought of what she had said.But he loved her so much that he couldn't make up his mind to punish her.

The prince has a foster brother who is one of his special favourites.The prince trusted him completely, but he was not a good guy at all, and often gave the "baby prince" some pretty bad ideas, encouraging him to do all kinds of bad things.Seeing the prince so depressed, he asked him what was the matter.When the prince explained that he could not bear Celia's disdain for him, and was determined to correct her faults in order to win her favor, the man with the bad idea said to him: "It is very kind of you to worry about this little girl. If I were you would have made her obey me at once. Remember that you are a king, and it would be ridiculous to see you trying to please a shepherdess—who would be happy enough to be your slave. Shut her up for a while. For a little while, give her only bread and water, and if she still says she won't marry you, cut off her head to teach others that you must make them absolutely obedient. Alas, if you can't make one like that Do as you please, girl, and your subjects will soon forget that they came into this world only to please you."

"But," said the Baby Prince, "is it not a shame to put an innocent girl to death? For Celia has done nothing to deserve punishment."

"People deserve to suffer if they don't do what you tell them to do," replied his foster brother. "Even if it is unjust, and you may be accused by your subjects, let them not find themselves ready to be rude to you, and to disobey your orders."

This remark touched the weakness of his elder brother's character, because the prince was afraid of losing the power he had, so he immediately gave up the previous idea of ​​trying to be a good man, and decided to threaten the shepherdess and force her to agree to marry him.

His step-brothers, wishing him to carry out this decision, invited three young courtiers who were as bad as himself to dine with the prince, who persuaded him to drink a great deal and kept telling him that she laughed at him Her love, in order to arouse his resentment against Celia.At last the prince ran to her in a rage, and announced that if she refused to marry him again, she would be sold as a slave the next day.

But when he ran to the room where Celia was shut up, he was surprised to find that she was not there at all, although he kept the key of the room in his pocket.He was so enraged that he swore revenge on everyone who helped her escape.When his bad friends heard this, they determined to transfer his wrath to an old nobleman--this nobleman was the prince's former tutor, and he still dared to point out the faults of the prince, because he loved the prince very much, just as the prince was. Like his own son.At first "Baby Prince" was grateful to him, but in time he grew impatient, thinking that it was only fault-finding that made his old governess blame himself when everyone was flattering him.So he made him retire from court, and he no longer liked his teacher, but he still spoke of him from time to time as a respectable and distinguished man.His mean friends, dreading the day when he would think of recalling the old governess, thought that now would be a good time to cast him out for good.

(End of this chapter)