CHAPTER IX
THE STORY OF PRINCESS SUNSET
When the story of the great desert or the lost ocean had been told, the little company of Moon people thanked the guide for his tales, and again started on their journey. Soon they approached the borders of a beautiful wood. The guide told them that he would turn back when they had travelled through the forest, for on the other side of the forest the black dwarf awaited them.
Princess Ethelda shuddered as she heard, but being a brave little Princess, she turned laughingly to the guide and said, “Well, Sir Guide, cannot you tell us another pretty story before you go?”
“Willingly,” replied the guide, and he at once began the story of Princess Sunset.
“Once upon a time there lived in the heart of a great forest, something like this we are passing through, a young Prince with his two elder brothers. They lived in a splendid palace, and were fond of hunting and shooting; but they were also frequently at war with their neighbors, so that fighting of some sort always seemed to be going on. This youngest was named Oswald; though he always accompanied his brothers to war, and was the very bravest of all the knights, he thought it was useless to fight about everything. Life would be much happier if people were kind and peace-loving; and unless there were a serious question to fight about, he did not believe in fighting at all. He much preferred to roam the forest, studying the sky and the trees, or the lovely waters of the clear blue lakes. He would spend hours thus, musing on the wonderful works of Nature, and wondering where she kept her marvellous paint-box.
“Now, Prince Oswald was very good-looking. He was tall and slender as the young saplings about him, but he was powerful and strong of limb, too; and when his brothers told him to choose a wife among the pretty maidens of the land, almost any of the princesses would have been glad to be chosen. But Prince Oswald was in no hurry to choose; he did not fall in love very easily, and he thought he would just wait until the right princess came along.
“One day, when lying on the shore of a beautiful body of water, he noticed that the sky was suddenly tinged with red. He rubbed his eyes with amazement, but the red hue tinged every object that he looked upon; the treetops, the lake, and the deer that glided along the edge of the forest had a delicate crimson splendor. In the midst of this fairy spectacle he heard a musical voice sigh, and turning around saw a radiantly beautiful woman standing near him. Her countenance was lovely, and her glorious brown eyes were sparkling with light. She smiled as she looked upon him, and for a minute her teeth gleamed white as little pearls between her red lips. Her splendid golden hair hung in soft masses below her waist, and the wind was blowing it softly about. Her garments were loose and flowing, and variegated in color, shading from the tenderest pink to the deepest crimson. The wonderful dyes of her dress seemed to float away from her in rosy clouds, and blend in the air until the rich rose-color around glowed and deepened to a magnificent red.
“Turning around he saw a radiantly beautiful woman near him.” ([Page 130])