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

  "He is starved!" cried the Queen, in a piercing wee voice of anguish.

  "I am starving myself!" roared the Lord Chamberlain, in a keen thoughtiny roar.

  "We are all starving!" shrieked the whole Court, in voices more or lessaudible.

  "Well," Vance said, looking at the affliction of the little people, "Imust say this is extremely disagreeable of them all to be starving. Theyalways are starving."

  "Very," the old woman echoed, with a sneering chuckle.

  As she spoke, she took from beneath her faded cloak a basket in whichwere delicate white cakes, fruits, and honey. These she began to eatwith great relish, apparently not at all interested in the Prince or hisfamily.

  "Come, now," cried he, "give me some of that! My Court is half dead."

  "Really?" she returned, coolly munching away.

  "Yes," shouted Vance, vainly attempting to snatch something from thewell-filled basket, "and I must have a cake to feed them on."

  The old lady made no resistance, but only flitted up like a bird, insome unaccountable way, to a limb of a tree, where she sat eating asplacidly as ever.

  "Goodness!" said poor Vance, startled half out of his wits, "are youGodmother too? You shy about just like her."

  "She is a friend of mine," answered the old woman. "I know all aboutyou, too, for that matter."

  There was nothing left for Vance but to beg for pity, and at last thestrange creature threw him down half a small cake.

  "There's plenty for your family."

  Vance provided for his little people, and then began humbly to beg for afew morsels for himself.

  "Wait," said the woman on the bough overhead, "till I see what there isin the pantry."

  She disappeared with great suddenness; but presently a little windowopened in the side of the tree trunk, from which the wrinkled old facelooked out.

  "Here are a few dry crusts from the closet," she said. "You may havethem. With a little honey I think they will go very well."

  She handed two or three mouldy scraps of bread out as she spoke, whichVance took with as good grace as he could muster.

  "Where is the honey?" he asked, eying his crusts ruefully.

  "Oh, I'll eat the honey while you eat the crusts," was the answer. "Thatis by far the best way to arrange it."

  "You are mean enough, I hope," he exclaimed angrily.

  But, alas! at the word the crusts left his grasp and appeared in thehand of the old woman.

  "Oh, very well," she said, "just as you please! You are not obliged tohave them, of course."

  Poor Vance was ready to cry with vexation and hunger, and quite brokedown at this last misfortune. He begged so humbly for the crusts that atlast the queer old crone relented and gave them back; and never didanything taste sweeter to him than these dry and mouldy morsels ofbread.

  "You may sleep where you are," the woman said as he finished; and sheclosed the window with a slam, leaving it impossible to say where it hadbeen.

  "Oh, by the way," she cried, a moment later, sticking her head throughthe bark of the tree, in a way that looked very uncomfortable indeed,"about those boundaries, you know, and the Crushed Strawberry Wizard, Iwas going to say--But, no; on the whole, it's no matter."

  And once more she disappeared, not again to be seen.

  "I must say," muttered Prince Vance, "strange things happen to me allthe time."

  And curling himself up on the moss, he fell fast asleep from weariness.

  VII

  The morning sun shining into his eyes awakened him; and after lookingabout carefully to assure himself that there was nothing to be had toeat in that place, Vance shouldered his box and trudged along theriver's bank. It was a beautiful bright morning; the birds were singing,the flowers were opening to the light, and had it not been for aconstantly growing hunger, the young traveller might have enjoyed hiswalk greatly. As it was, he soon became so hungry that he could think ofnothing but eating. He went on, however, until about noon, before hefound any food; then to his great joy he came upon a fine tree hangingfull of ripe peaches, rosy and plump as a baby's cheek.

  "Now for a feast!" he said eagerly to himself, as he put down his boxand prepared to gather a hatful of the delicious fruit.

  Just then he stumbled over something, and looking down saw a man lyingon the grass with his eyes shut and his mouth open.

  "Hallo!" exclaimed the Prince. "Who are you? Are you awake or asleep?"

  "Awake," answered the man, without stirring.

  "Why don't you get up then?" asked Vance. "Are you ill?"

  "No," replied the man, briefly.

  And indeed he was as stout a fellow as one would meet in a summer's day.

  "Then what are you doing?" demanded the Prince, who had lost allpatience and who thought that the other might at least take the troubleto open his eyes to see who was talking to him.

  "Waiting," the man said, opening his eyes at last.

  "Waiting for what?"

  "For a peach to drop into my mouth."

  "One has fallen beside your cheek," said Vance, "and another right inyour hand."

  "But I want it in my mouth," sighed the man on the ground. "I am sodreadfully hungry."

  "So dreadfully lazy, you mean," exclaimed Vance, quite out of patience;and he began to eat the luscious fruit. "You must certainly be thelaziest man in the world."

  "If you think that," was the drawling answer, "you ought to see mycousin Loto, who lives down the river a mile as the crow flies."

  "He'll have to be lazy, indeed, to beat you," the Prince said, as heonce more shouldered his box. "Do you know where the Crushed StrawberryWizard lives?"

  "I know," returned the man, "but I'm too lazy to tell."

  "It wouldn't take you any longer to tell than to say you can't tell,"cried Vance, hotly.

  "Perhaps not," was the cool retort; "but if I told it would be doingsomething, and I never do anything."

  The Prince started on his way without another word. He did not even stopto put a peach into the lazy man's open mouth, as he at first had somethought of doing. He kept along beside the river for some time, and hadnearly forgotten the words of the lazy man about his cousin, whensuddenly he came upon what to his horror he at first supposed to be thebody of some thief hanging from a tree. As he got closer, however, hefound that the man was alive and suspended by a belt which went underhis arms. The man did not seem in the least to mind being hung, butlooked quite calm and peaceful. A second man stood upon an overturnedbucket and blew into the mouth of the first with a pair of bellows.

  "What are you doing?" asked Vance curiously, as he stopped beside them.

  "Why," replied the man with the bellows, "this fellow is too lazy tostand, so we have to hang him up; and he is too lazy to breathe forhimself, so he pays me a groat a day to do it for him with the bellows."

  "I saw a man up the river who was too lazy to eat," observed Vance. "Ithought he was bad enough, but this is surely the laziest man alive."

  "If you think that," the blower answered, "you should see his cousinGobbo, who lives a mile farther down the river as the crow flies."

  At this Vance was reminded that nightfall was not very far off, and oncemore he started on his way. The man with the bellows jumped down fromhis bucket and ran eagerly after him. He was a simple-looking man, witha large and frog-like mouth.

  "It creeps in the family," he whispered hoarsely to the Prince.

  "What does?"

  "Laziness. If it were anything else, you know, you'd say it _ran_ in thefamily. But wait till you see Gobbo!"

  Just then he noticed that Loto was growing quite limp and purple in theface for want of breath; so he hastily scrambled back to his bucket, andonce more began to blow for dear life and a groat a day.

  "By the way," asked Vance, halting, "do you know where the CrushedStrawberry Wizard lives?"

  "He knows," replied the blower, "but you can't get it out of him. He'stoo lazy to speak; so it's no manner of use fretting about it."

  With
a sigh of weariness and disgust the royal wayfarer turned away andwent on his journey. Just at dusk he reached a small village, or rathera group of poor little houses; and as he was about to knock at the doorof one to ask for shelter, he saw a procession coming over the fields.There were a number of men with flaring torches, one or two with picksand spades, while in the midst was carried a bier upon which lay a manwith his eyes wide open, staring straight ahead.

  "What's all this?" the Prince asked of one who seemed of some authorityin the company.

  "We are going to bury Gobbo," replied the man.

  "But he isn't dead yet," exclaimed Vance, quite horrified.

  "True," the man returned, in a matter-of-fact tone, "but he does notcare about living. I know, for he's hired me to think for him these tenyears. Now I'm tired of it, and so I think it's best to bury him; and ofcourse it's all the same as if he thought so himself."

  "Well," said Vance, who was beginning to grow badly confused by the oddpeople he encountered, "if he doesn't mind I'm sure I don't know why Ishould. But perhaps before he is buried he can tell me where to find theCrushed Strawberry Wizard."

  "He won't take the trouble to remember," answered the man, "and I'm sureI'll do no more thinking for him."

  "Well," was the thought with which the unlucky Vance consoled himself,"it is something to have seen the laziest man on earth."

  VIII

  He found an empty hut, in which was some mouldy straw; and there hepassed the night, sleeping as soundly as if he had been on his own royalbed of down in the palace at home. His breakfast was begged at the doorof one of the houses in the village; and all day he followed the river,until near evening he came to the gray seashore and the huts of thefisher folk.

  "What is the name of the river I have been following?" he asked of awrinkled old fisherman who was mending his net in the sunset.

  "It is called Laf," the old man answered. "It is the eastern border ofJolliland, as the coast is the northern."

  "Oh, bother boundaries!" Vance exclaimed, "I hate them. Can you give mesomething to eat?"

  "We are poor folk," said the old man, "but I suppose we can give ye abite if ye pays for it."

  "Pay for it!" cried Vance, in astonishment. "Do you know who I am?"

  "Not rightly," said the fisherman; "but from yer look and from yer box Itake ye for a travelling showman. What have ye got in yer box?"

  "My family," answered the Prince, before he thought. "Do you know wherethe Crushed Strawberry Wizard lives?"

  "Not rightly," the other replied again; "but I think somewherealongshore. What sort of a family have ye got? A happy family?"

  "I'm sure I hope they're happy," was Vance's response. "I know that I amnot. Perhaps they may like being carried better than I like carryingthem."

  "What can they do?" the fisherman persisted. "Can they dance and eatbuns like a bear, or do they fight and knock each other about like Punchand Judy?"

  "They do nothing of the sort," began the Prince, angrily. "It is not ashow at all; it is--"

  Then remembering that if he was rude to the fisherman he shouldcertainly lose all chance of getting a supper, he became more polite,and ended by saying,--

  "They are--I mean they act out a king and queen and their court."

  "Truly," cried the fisherman; "that is a rare show indeed! I never sawthe like. Come in and get your supper, and afterward we will have outthe puppets."

  Upon this he led the way into his hut, and bade the Prince follow him.It was a very poor little hut indeed, with rude walls, in which thecracks were stuffed with seaweed to keep out the wind, and with a smallfire burning on the heap of flat stones which served for a fireplace.The fisherman's wife, who was old and quite crooked with rheumatism, washobbling about getting the supper, which she said was all but ready.When it was all ready, without the but, they sat down, though the poorPrince, hungry as he was, found it hard work to swallow the dry redherring, the rasping oaten cakes, and the brackish water of which themeal consisted. When he had finished the meal,--which, as you maysuppose, did not take long,--he set his box upon the table and openedit.

  "First," he said, "let us give them some food, and you shall see howprettily they can play at eating and drinking."

  But if the food was coarse eating to Vance, you may well imagine that itwas quite beyond the power of the tiny teeth of the little people, whowere not able to eat a morsel. This made them wring their hands and weepupon their tiny pocket-handkerchiefs; and the King even boxed the LordChancellor's ears, so angry was he at being disappointed of his supper.

  All this was vastly amusing to the fisherman and his wife, who thoughtthe whole thing was done as a show, and would not hear of Vance'sclosing his box until the darkness quite hid the supposed puppets fromsight.

  In the night, as Vance lay trying in vain to sleep upon the hard clayfloor of the cottage, he overheard the fisherman and his wife whisperingtogether.

  "I tell ye, wife," the old man was saying, "I will do it, so there be'san end to the matter. I tell ye I will have the show for my very own. Icould make more money with the puppets in one day at the fair, than Imake by a year's fishing hereabouts."

  "But the boy," asked the old woman, eagerly,--"ye won't hurt the boy,will ye, good man?"

  "Hurt him? No," returned the fisherman, "I won't do him no harm. I'llsell him for a sailor to the ship that lies in the offing, and then I'lltake his show and travel about the country with it, making money."

  As Vance heard this, you may be sure he shivered with horror at the ideathat his family was to be stolen and he himself sold to go as a sailor.He lay very still, however, till the loud snoring told him that thefisherman and his wife were both asleep, when he rose softly, andfinding his precious box shouldered his burden, crept quietly from thecottage, and made all the speed he could in the darkness to leave thewicked fisherman and his hut far, far behind.

  At daybreak he met a man just pushing his boat from the shore, and fromhim he asked whither the road along the beach would lead him.

  "That's a thing as nobody can't tell ye," said the man, fitting the oarsinto his boat, "because nobody don't rightly know. Howsoever, I adviseye to take it, for it's full as likely to lead somewheres as nowheres."

  This advice was of no great value to the Prince, yet he felt obliged tofollow it, as he dared not go back; so he tramped on steadily, thoughthe sun was high, and the box was heavy, and the Court within buzzedlike a hive of angry bees at being forced to go so long without food.

  IX

  Near noon the Prince was joined by a jelly-fish, who seemed to be of acheerful and lively disposition, and who insisted upon attaching himselfto Vance and going along with him. The boy thought that he already hadquite as many people as he was able to look after, and he told thecreature so plainly.

  "Besides," he finished quite crossly, for he was really out of patience,"to say the truth, you flump so that you make me nervous."

  "Boys shouldn't have nerves," said the jelly-fish, coolly. "Of course,if I have no legs I can't walk, and if I can't walk I must flump. That'splain, even to you, I suppose."

  Prince Vance was too vexed to reply; so the pair kept on in silence,save for the tired footsteps of the boy and the loud flumping of thejelly-fish on the damp sand of the shore. Near sundown they reached abroad field where ripe grain of some sort seemed to be growing, andthrough it, shaded by trees, ran a brook, clear as crystal. Into thisfield the weary Prince gladly turned, and first of all opened his box,half fearing lest he should find the poor little Court quite dead fromcruel hunger. They were not indeed really lifeless, but they were lyingabout limp and white, and looked as if there was very little strengthleft in them. The Prince hastily filled them several acorn cups fromthe clear, cold brook, and then, seizing one of the long heads, of whichthe grain hung full, he broke it open as quickly as possible.

  "Raw wheat," he said, "is certainly not good, but at least it will keepthem from starva--"

  He stopped in amazement, and no wonder; for instead of th
e grain heexpected to find, the pod was full of chocolate creams, large, and allof the most delicious flavors, as the Prince found by trying one. Heopened another pod in astonishment; lemon drops fell from it. A thirdwas full of burnt almonds, while a fourth contained sugared dates. Inshort, the whole wonderful field was full of sweetmeats: cocoanut cakesand macaroons; cream figs, marsh mallows, and gum drops; almond paste,candied nuts, sugared seeds, and crystallized fruits; in truth, youcould not even dream of any sort of luscious confectionery which was notgrowing fresh and plentiful in that charming field.

  Very quickly the Prince placed several fine bonbons upon the baby-housetable. The King, too near starving to care much for good manners,carved with his sword, and ladies and gentlemen seized slices in theirhands and ate as if famished. A wine drop furnished them with deliciouscordial to drink, and thus the Court feasted so merrily that it wouldhave done one's heart good to see them.

  Having thus provided for his family, you may be sure that Vance was nota great while in providing for himself; and having shelled a fine lapfulof bonbons, he sat down to enjoy himself in peace, when to his vexationhe heard at his side the unwelcome voice of the jelly-fish.

  "Feed me first!" cried the creature; "I have no hands to gather bonbonsfor myself. Feed me first! I am hungry too."

  Poor Prince Vance! He was indeed weary and warm and hungry, and hispatience was quite gone.