continued from yesterday.....
The canary flew into the castle two nights later for his monthly visit and found the place empty. He flew home immediately to report to the King that the princess and the dragon were both gone. The poor King was more worried than he had been in years. Now he didn’t know where his daughter was, or if she was even alive.
The King sent out new search parties, and went riding through the forests himself, looking for the princess. The canary also began to search, flying high overhead, looking for his friend.
Meanwhile, the princess made her way slowly down the rugged mountain, slipping and sliding over boulders and through streams. At last she reached the forest at the foot of the mountain, and found a small hut half hidden beneath pine trees. She hesitated to open the door, but it was growing dusk, and she was afraid of being in the woods alone at night. Inside the hut she found a warm fire blazing in a fireplace, and a young family sitting around a table, just beginning to eat their evening meal. The father stood as the princess opened the door.
"Oh!" she gasped when she saw the family. "I didn't know anyone was in here."
"No matter," the father said as he stared at the teenage girl in astonishment.
His wife took in the princess’s tattered clothes and the bundle she carried over her shoulder. "You have come far, my dear. Come in and sit by the fire. You look worn out."
"You want me to come in," the princess asked? She was shocked that these people would invite a complete stranger into their home.
"We are just about to eat our supper," the wife explained. "I will get a bowl of soup for you, too. It will help to warm you." Quickly she poured a little soup from each of the bowls on the table into a new bowl and placed it in front of the princess.
The princess was amazed that they would give her their food, but she was hungry and cold, so she took it. "I have some bread in my bag," the girl said uncertainly, reaching into her bag for a loaf of bread she had found in the castle. "It is a few days old, and pretty hard, but it will taste good if you dip it in the soup."
The children clapped their hands when they heard this. Their father was a woodcutter, and times were hard for the little family. Usually all they had to eat was soup made from rabbits or squirrels the father was able to catch, and a few wild onions the mother found in the woods. They had not had bread for a long time.
That night the family feasted, and talked long with the princess. She had been locked up in the castle for so many years that she didn’t know what was going on in the world outside. Finally, the wife made a soft bed for the princess out of blankets laid down on the floor in front of the fireplace, and she went to sleep. In the morning, she helped the woodcutter’s wife feed the children, using the last of the food in her pack. As she fed the littlest child, the mother looked up to see the princess studying her.
"What is it", she asked. "You look as if there is something you would like to ask me."
"I was just wondering," the Princess answered timidly. "You wear a beautiful gold crown on your head. How is it that a woodcutter’s wife had the opportunity to go to school and become learned?"
"Bless my soul," answered the woman. "I haven’t been to school, not ever. How could such as I go to school?" and she laughed merrily.
"But, then how did you get that gold crown?" asked the princess. "I was told we earned our crowns through learning.
"I don’t know why my crown is gold," answered the wife, "but I suspect I have learned as much as another just by living, though I wouldn’t be able to write my own name if you asked me. How about you? How much schooling have you had?"
"Oh, not very much," the princess admitted in dismay. "I went when I was a little girl, but I haven’t been able to go to school for many, many years."
"Then how do you explain your crown," asked the wife.
"My crown?" said the princess in amazement. "I don’t have a crown."
"Then what is that pretty thing sitting on your head?" asked the woman with a laugh.
The princess put her hands up to her head. Sure enough, she felt a crown there. How had she never felt it before?
The woodcutter’s wife went and found a small piece of looking glass, which she kept tucked away in a corner of the hut. "Here you go," she said. "See for yourself what a lovely crown you wear."
The princess took the glass, and looked in amazement at her own reflection. She wore a beautiful crown made from a single strand of twisted gold.
She looked at the woodcutter’s wife, then back at her reflection in disbelief. "Oh," she said in awe.
continued tomorrow.....
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