THE SEVEN ENCHANTED PRINCES
The Story of How Honoria Kept Her Promise
Long ago there was a little maid who lived all alone with her grandmother. They were very poor. The girl's name was Honoria.
One day the grandmother sent the girl out to sell some of the oranges from their orange tree.
"You must bring home at least three vintens to me," she said. "Don't dare return without at least that small amount of money."
Honoria went from door to door trying to sell the oranges. Every one seemed to have plenty of them that day. There was nobody who would purchase a single one.
She walked on and on through the town, everywhere obtaining the same answer, "We do not wish to purchase any oranges to-day."
Finally she found herself outside the town and in the forest. There was a house with the door wide open and on the table in front of the door lay three vintens. There was no one in sight and nobody answered Honoria's knock at the door.
"I'll take the money and leave some oranges in place of it," said Honoria. "That will not be stealing."
Accordingly, she selected some of the largest and finest of her oranges and placed them on the table. She put the money away carefully to take to her grandmother. Then she turned to leave, but found that the door was closed.
She tried her best to open it but could not. Neither could she open any of the windows to climb out by that means. The windows were all fastened just as securely as the door.
"What shall I do?" cried the girl, who was now thoroughly frightened.
She did not like the idea of remaining a prisoner in the house in the forest. All day she tried to find some way of escape, but there seemed nothing to do except to wait until somebody came to her aid.
"This house is not far from the city. Surely some one will be passing this way and will come and help me get out," said Honoria. "I hope they'll come before night."
There was nothing to eat in the house and she was thankful enough for the big basket full of juicy oranges.
At last it grew dark. Then Honoria heard footsteps outside the house. She could not see who was coming, but a key was turned in the lock and some one entered. She was so frightened that she hid under the table.
A lighted candle showed that seven dwarfs had entered the house. They had brought food with them, and they at once went to work to prepare their evening meal.
"Who left us all these fine oranges?" asked one of the dwarfs.
"I do not know," replied another. "Some one has surely been here and it must have been a kind friend."
Honoria was almost tempted to crawl from under the table and show herself, but she decided that it would be better to stay where she was and go home the next day when it was light.
When morning came, however, she found that she had been sleeping so soundly that she had not heard the seven dwarfs when they left the house. The door was fastened just as securely as before.
Honoria looked about the house and saw that there was enough work to keep her busy all day. There were dishes to wash and floors to sweep and beds to make. Fortunately the dwarfs had left plenty of food.
When night came she heard the footsteps approaching and again hid under the table. As soon as the seven dwarfs came into the house they saw that it had been changed wonderfully during their absence.
"Our dishes are all washed!" cried one of the dwarfs. "Last night we forgot to wash them after supper!"
"Our beds are all made!" cried another. "We left home so early this morning we did not have time to make them!"
"Our floors are all swept and everything is in order!" cried another. "We never have looked so neat and clean!"
