Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little
PrincessOnce upon a time there lived a king who was deeply in love with
a princess, but she could not marry anyone, because she was under
an enchantment. So the King set out to seek a fairy, and
asked what he could do to win the Princess’s love. The Fairy
said to him:
“You know that the Princess has a great cat which she is very
fond of. Whoever is clever enough to tread on that cat’s tail
is the man she is destined to marry.”
The King said to himself that this would not be very difficult,
and he left the Fairy, determined to grind the cat’s tail to powder
rather than not tread on it at all.
You may imagine that it was not long before he went to see the
Princess, and puss, as usual, marched in before him, arching his
back. The King took
