Prince Vance: The Story of a Prince with a Court in His Box Read online

  "What!" exclaimed the Prince, in his confusion dropping his father intothe pudding sauce and entirely ruining the royal robes. "Can't changethem back? But you must change them back if I tell you to."

  "Oh, as to that," the Blue Wizard answered carelessly, giving the kingin turn a bath in the finger-bowl, "what you say isn't of the leastconsequence any way. In the first place, no wizard is bound to obeyanybody who does not himself know how to obey; and in the second place,nobody can undo this particular charm but the Crushed StrawberryWizard."

  "Very well, then," said Vance, imperiously, paying no attention whateverto the first part of the Blue Wizard's remark; "go and get the CrushedStrawberry Wizard."

  "Get him yourself!" was the answer. "_I_ don't want him. It is nothingto me, you know; this isn't my family."

  "But where does the Crushed Strawberry Wizard live?" asked the Prince,more humbly.

  "I'm sure I've no idea," the Blue Wizard replied lightly; "and now Ithink of it, I don't believe I care. I'm sure I don't see why I should."

  "But it's all your fault," blubbered Vance, beginning to cry, andsitting down upon his uncle, the Duke Ogee, without even noticing himtill the Duke wriggled so that Vance jumped up in a fright, thinking hehad sat down upon a frog. "I'm sure you got me into the scrape."

  "Now you're getting tiresome," said the Wizard, yawning. "I never likedtiresome people myself."

  "But I don't know what to do-oo!" sobbed the Prince.

  At this the Wizard only gave a terrible laugh and vanished quite awayagain, leaving the naughty young Prince to get out of his trouble asbest he could.

  IV

  For a few moments Prince Vance continued to cry rather noisily, thoughit must be confessed that it was more because he was so vexed at theBlue Wizard than because he was at all sorry for what he had done.Indeed, he did not even now realize that the trick was likely to turnout a very serious thing; and after a while he dried his eyes, andhaving collected his wits proceeded to collect also all the littlepeople and put them together at one end of the royal dining-table.

  They made such a pretty sight, with their little court robes and tinyjewels, that Vance was charmed with them and declared them to be moreinteresting than white mice or even guinea pigs. He could hear them,too, if he listened very closely indeed, quarrelling and blaming oneanother for what had befallen them; and this was so vastly funny to thewicked Prince that he rubbed his hands and fairly danced again withglee. It was only when the palace cat, pouncing upon the Lord Chancelloras he lay upon the window-sill, snatched him and carried him off in hermouth, that Vance began to be a little frightened, and to realize that,having made the whole family unable to protect themselves, it had nowbecome his duty to care for them and see that they came to no harm. Hejust managed to save the Lord Chancellor from the lantern jaws of theroyal cat, and then proceeded at once to set his small family in safeplaces for the night. Some he put in the crystal lily-cups of thechandeliers; others in the crannies of the golden mouldings on the wall;while for the King and Queen and the twelve little Princesses, he founda lovely chamber in a pink porcelain shell which hung from the ceilingby silver chains, and was commonly used for the burning of perfumes andspices to make the air of the dining-hall sweet and delightful. All thisbeing attended to, the Prince betook himself to bed; but the palaceseemed very lonely and silent, and the Prince was so dull and sofrightened that he might not have gone to sleep at all, save for thecheering thought that at least there was no danger of lessons on themorrow, as the tutor was too small to teach, and his father and motherfar too little to make him obey.

  "I will go to the preserve closets," he murmured to himself as he wasdropping off to sleep. "There is now nobody to stop me. I shall beginwith the damsons and the honey in the morning, and I shall have all thewedding cake and macaroons that I can possibly eat."

  But, alas for the Prince! when morning came he found that affairs wereturning out differently indeed from the way in which he had planned.When he came down to breakfast, with his foolish head full of visions ofordering the cook to send up pigeon pot-pie, curry of larks, strongcoffee,--which was a forbidden delight to the Prince except upon hisbirthdays,--and unlimited buttered toast and jam, what a downfall to allhis hopes was it to find, pacing the dining-hall, the fierce and cruelGeneral Bopi, who, luckily for himself, had been out hunting the daybefore, and so missed the fatal dinner, and was still quite as large aslife if not larger. He had discovered the state of affairs at thepalace; and so far from making himself unhappy about this, he wasevidently in great good spirits, and, to say the least, was disposed tomake the best of matters instead of the worst. He had put on the King'svery best crown which was kept to be worn only on great occasions, andwith a cloak of royal ermine on his shoulders was strutting boldly upand down, enjoying his new splendors and the feeling of power which theybrought.

  How it happened Vance never was quite able to tell, but the first thinghe knew, his dreams of having his own way and ordering the servantsabout to his heart's content were shattered, and he found himselfsomehow pushed and hustled outside on the palace steps,--himself, thePrince, and heir to the royal throne, turned away from his own door andordered to leave the kingdom on pain of death.

  "But my family!" cried Vance; "I hid them from the cat, and now theywill starve. Nobody can find them but me!"

  "As for their starving," the General replied indifferently, "I don'tknow that I care for that; but I would rather the palace should be ridof the whole vermin race of them, so you may come in and gather them up.But be quick about it, or I'll set the royal bloodhounds on you!"

  Thus roughly treated, the poor Prince made haste to collect hisscattered family from the nooks and crannies where he had hidden them.He was cramming them into his pockets with very little thought for theirfeelings, when he happened to remember his sister's baby-house, whichnot only had parlors, bedrooms, and dining-rooms in plenty, but was wellfurnished with everything which the heart of little people could desire.This he begged very humbly of the new king, and having it granted him hepacked his family into it, making them as comfortable as their reducedcircumstances would allow. A grinning footman strapped the box on theback of the Prince as an organ-grinder carries his organ; then hehelped him out of the palace with a sudden push which had nearly senthim headlong down the steps. Laughing pages ran before him, and thePrince recalled the many times he had tweaked their noses and stuck pinsin the calves of their legs. Everybody seemed heartily glad to see himgo.

  "Good riddance to bad rubbish!" quoth the palace hound; "you will neveragain put my meat up a tree where I cannot get it."

  "Get out with you!" snapped the royal cat. "I'm glad you are turned outof the house. Let us hope a body can take a nap in comfort now, withouthaving her tail stepped on or snuff sprinkled in her face."

  "Don't trouble yourself ever to come back," screeched the peacock,hoarsely. "For my part, I'm tired of having my handsomest tail-featherssnatched out by the handful. I'm sure I trust I shall never set eyes onyou again."

  So it was with all the animals in the royal gardens. The deer, the emus,the gazelles, the swans, the flamingoes, the parrots, even his ownparticular white mice and spotted guinea pigs, declared that they wereglad he was going, and hoped he might never come back any more. Not acreature did anything but rejoice as the royal beggar was tumbled rudelyout from his own father's gardens and left standing alone in thehighway, already heartily sorry for his prank, and quite at his wits'end as to what to do with the Court which he carried in his baggage.

  V

  Considering that Prince Vance had never done anything at all forhimself, not even so much as to tie his own shoe-strings, it was apretty hard lot for him to be turned out into the world to get his ownliving, and take care of the whole Court besides. At first he was almosttempted to throw away the box and all his relatives with it; butalthough of course he could not be expected to think so much of hisfather and mother now that there was so very little of them to be fondof, still under all his follies Vanc
e had a good sort of heart, and sohe trudged away with the troublesome little Court strapped tightly tohis shoulders. I am not perfectly sure that he did not take somepleasure in jolting it about, for I have more than once seen little folkbang and jerk bundles they were made to carry against their wills. Atany rate, the King and the Queen and the Court came very near beingseasick upon dry land, from the jolting and rocking of this new mannerof travelling.

  Prince Vance had not the least idea where he was going. He knew, ofcourse, that he wanted to find the Crushed Strawberry Wizard, but he didnot know where that individual lived, or how to go to work to find him;so he only made his best pace to get away from the palace as fast as hecould, being afraid that the new king might repent of not having takenhis head from his shoulders, and send somebody after him.

  It was about sunset when he came to a beautiful field which lay alongthe banks of a wide dark river; and Vance, who by this time was halfstarved, was delighted that wild strawberries grew here in great plenty,making the ground quite red. He first looked about for somebody to pickthem for him, but naturally he found no one; so he set down his luggageand fell to helping himself, eating very fast and paying very littleattention to the rules of good society.

  It was not until he had stuffed himself to the throat that he happenedto think that his travelling companions might also be hungry. He openedthe box and let them out, and found much pleasure in watching theirfunny antics as they stumbled over tiny pebbles or became entangled inthe grass and struggled helplessly as if caught in some horriblethicket. Two or three would seat themselves around one ripe berry, anddine from it where it was growing; others drank drops of the eveningdew, which already shone in the clover leaves and buttercups; while theLord Chancellor, who seemed to be always getting into trouble, pickedsome sort of quarrel with a large green grasshopper,--and so terribledid the battle become that there is no telling who would have come outof it alive had not Vance gone to the poor Lord's help and frightenedthe insect away.

  Under all these trying circumstances the poor nobles kept something oftheir court manners; and their smiles and stately movements, theirbowings and courtesies, seemed to Prince Vance so droll that he wentinto violent fits of laughter and rolled about on the grass.

  As it grew dark he did indeed stop laughing and think longingly of hissoft bed with its silken pillows and down coverings, but in truth he wasso tired he could hardly keep his eyes open at all; and as soon as hehad picked his small relatives and friends out of the damp grass and putthem safely into their box, he lay down under a spreading beech-tree andfell into a sound and delicious sleep.

  The morning found the Prince somewhat refreshed and gave him a freshdetermination. He resolved to set out at once on the search for theCrushed Strawberry Wizard, leaving no means untried until he discoveredhim and prevailed upon him to change the transformed Court to its formercondition. He shouldered his box and started bravely on the road, notknowing at all where he was going, and already beginning to regret thathe had not paid to his lessons at least sufficient attention to havelearned in which direction his own kingdom extended.

  He had walked an hour or two when he saw by the roadside a man engagedin gathering the down from the tall thistles that grew by the way.

  "Hallo!" cried the Prince; "what do you expect to do with that?"

  "Beds," answered the man, shortly, and without stopping his work.

  "Oh!" Vance said, seating himself on a stone and putting down his boxbeside him. "You make beds of it, do you? They must be very soft."

  "Dandelion," replied the man.

  "Dandelion?" repeated the Prince. "That doesn't mean anything."

  The man nodded his head in a knowing way, but said nothing. He was astrange-looking individual, with clothing which was made of all sorts ofodds and ends pieced together; while so lean and wizened was he that itmade the Prince hungry only to look at him.

  "Do you mean that dandelion down makes better beds?" asked Vance, whosewits were being sharpened by his travels.

  The other nodded.

  "Then why in the world couldn't you say so? You are not dumb."

  "Breath," returned the little thin man, briefly.

  He moved from the bunch of thistles which he had stripped to the next,turning as he did so and carefully picking up his footprints to use overagain and save himself the trouble of making new ones.

  "You are certainly the most economical man I ever saw," declared thePrince, irritably. "I wouldn't be so mean with my old footprints; nobodyelse would bother to pick them up. And as for breath, you might spare alittle more of that; it doesn't cost anything."

  The man paid no especial attention to these rather uncivil remarks, butwent on in his work with great diligence.

  "Do talk a little!" Vance said, becoming more and more impatient everymoment. "At least you can tell me how to find the Crushed StrawberryWizard?"

  "Why?" asked the man, with the first show of interest he had displayed.

  "I'm going in search of him."

  "Wouldn't," was the little man's reply.

  "Why not?"

  "Dreadfully wearing on shoes," the other answered.

  Then he stopped and collected the breath which he had used in thisspeech,--for him a very long one,--and went on steadily pickingthistledown.

  "But I must find him," Vance persisted, vexed anew at this reply; "wheredoes he live?"

  "Don't know," said the thistledown-gatherer, shortly.

  Vance arose from the stone with an impatient flounce, and took up hisbox so suddenly that the teeth of all the Court chattered.

  "Well," he said snappishly, "you are certainly the stingiest man I eversaw. You can't even give away a civil word."

  "Oh, no!" returned the old man, with an expression of greatastonishment. "Never give anything away. What will you give for yourdolls?"

  Now, this question might sound like pure idiocy to some people; butfunnily enough it came into the head of Vance that when he had beenteasing those twelve models of propriety, his sisters, a few daysbefore, and had made their blue bead-like eyes swim with tears by takingaway their playthings, he had used just those very same words to them.He hung his head a little; but still, determined to put a bold face onthe matter, he said,--

  "Don't talk nonsense! Tell me the way to the Crushed Strawberry Wizard'sthis minute!"

  But, to his surprise, where the queer old man had stood there was only aseedy black raven, very battered and ragged, but with a remarkable pairof glittering red eyes.

  VI

  "I must say," the raven remarked severely, "that, considering the factthat nobody invited you to come to this concert at all, and that youhave no check for a reserved seat, it would look better in you to keepquiet and not disturb the entertainment."

  "Concert!" exclaimed Vance, in bewilderment. "There isn't any concert."

  "But there is going to be," returned the bird, more severely thanbefore. "I'm going to sing myself. First, I shall sing a love-song. Bequiet!"

  And without further ado he began, in a terribly hoarse and crackedvoice,--

  "Snip-snap, frip-frap, Bungalee, tee hee lees; Jip-jap; nip-nap, Tungatee tinum gee me strap, Bring me a bottle of cheese."

  "Oh, come," exclaimed the Prince, "you must really know that that isnonsense! It certainly means nothing."

  "How do you know?" demanded the raven, fixing his glittering eye on thePrince. "Do you understand the language of love?"

  "No," said Vance, more humbly; "I must confess that I don't, though I'vealways heard it was very silly."

  "Speaking of the boundaries of a king--" the raven began easily; but thePrince interrupted in great haste.

  "Nobody _was_ speaking of boundaries," he said sharply; "you made thatup yourself."

  "--dom," resumed the raven, calmly, paying no sort of attention to theinterruption of the Prince, but cocking his head on one side and lookingwickedly out of one eye, "they are very useful to know, and there arevarious ways of learning them. Some people learn
them in the schoolroom; that's one way: some travel; that's--"

  But before he could get any farther Vance had caught up a stone andflung it at him. With a terrible croaking the raven flew up into the airin circles higher and higher until he vanished straight overhead.

  "Ten to one that was Godmother herself," grumbled Vance, as he picked uphis box and started again along the dusty road.

  All the rest of the day he travelled, growing more and more weary, untilat sunset he came to a very old woman sitting beside a great tree uponthe river's bank.

  "Hallo!" cried Vance, not too politely.

  The wrinkled old creature looked at the river, at the tree, at thesky,--everywhere, in a word, except at the travel-stained Vance.

  "Come!" he said more roughly yet, "why don't you speak when you arespoken to? Do you know who I am?"

  The aged crone wrinkled her forehead and lifted her grizzled eyebrows,still without looking at him.

  "No," she answered coolly, "I don't know that I do. You look like aboot-black with that box on your shoulders, only that a boot-black wouldbe more civil-spoken."

  An angry retort sprang to the lips of the Prince, but before he couldgive vent to it a terrible little shrill sound from the box struck hisears. In sudden dismay he unslung the baby-house, and opened it todiscover what was the matter with his family.

  In the middle of the floor of the largest room of the baby-house wereall the Court, gathered about the old King, who had fallen in a faintfrom hunger.