Just as the prince approached the place where the beautiful girl stood, one of the little girls she took care of stumbled and fell. The little girl scraped her knee on a rock and began to cry. The beautiful girl knelt and wrapped her arms around the crying child. She kissed the little girl's knee and dried her tears, then picked her up and held her in her arms, kissing her hair and whispering in her ear. The little girl looked up into her smiling face and the beautiful girl smiled down with twinkling eyes just as the prince rode past. He saw the sparkling smile, and immediately knew this was the girl he was looking for. He didn’t even notice the cap covering her hair, the simple servant dress she was wearing, or her rough, tanned skin. All he saw was her beautiful smile.
Quickly the prince slid off the back of his horse and pushed his way through the crowd until he was standing right in front of the beautiful girl. He reached out and caught one of her hands, pressed it to his lips, then fell down on one knee and cried, "Beautiful lady, will you marry me? You are the most beautiful girl in the world, and I have loved you since I was a boy!"
The girl looked at him in amazement. "But I’m not beautiful," she whispered. "I don’t have beautiful clothes, or hair, or skin. I’m just a poor servant girl. You can’t be in love with me."
The prince stood up and gazed into the girls eyes. "You are the most beautiful girl in the world," he said. "I fell in love with you when I was a little boy, and the second I saw your smile I recognized you. I know you are as beautiful inside as you are outside, and you will make me a perfect queen. Please say you will marry me."
So the beautiful girl went back to the palace with the prince and became his wife, and they lived happily ever after, because she was as beautiful inside as out, and she made him the happiest man alive.
The End
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