“Ugh!” cried Ben with a warning finger held up, as Joel ducked instantly.
“It’s a waist that princesses always wear,” said Polly; “and Esmeralda’s was all spangled with gold and silver. It shone so that no one could look at it more than a minute at a time. Well, so she said, ‘Yes, father,’ and ‘Yes, mother.’
“‘We have too much gold,’ said the king, smiting his hands together. ‘Esmeralda, I tell you truly, if it keeps coming in we shall all have to move out from this palace, and find another home. What shall we do, my child?’
“Esmeralda jumped up from her knees, and ran to the casement, and climbed up the golden seat beneath it, and peered out. There were the ships below her in the harbor, with the men taking out the bags and bags and bags of gold; and as far as her eye could reach, there were more ships and more ships and more ships all coming in, filled with bags to the very brim. She got down, and ran back. ‘It is certainly very dreadful, father and mother,’ she said, clasping her hands.
“‘Indeed it is,’ declared the king; and he began to tear his hair.
“‘Husband, don’t feel so badly,’ implored the poor queen at that sight, throwing her arms around him. ‘Esmeralda, you must think quickly, because you see we are both going quite distracted.’
“So Esmeralda said the first thing that came into her head. ‘You might tell the men to untie the bags, and pour the gold pieces into the sea at the mouth of the harbor.’
“‘The very thing!’ exclaimed the king in delight; and his face was covered with smiles. ‘Oh, what it is to have a clever child!’ and the queen fell upon Esmeralda’s neck, and kissed and kissed her.
“So then the king rang all his bells, and blew his long glass horn, and then he struck a big silver gong that was always the signal for the Lord High Chamberlain to appear. And when he popped in with his robes of office all caught up in his hands, to let him run to obey the king’s call, and his high peaked hat awry for the same reason, the king gave him the order just as Esmeralda said; and then the Lord High Chamberlain plunged out, after bowing himself before the throne five and twenty times to the marble floor; and the king said to the queen, in the greatest satisfaction, ‘My dear, we must give Esmeralda a Ball for being so clever.’
“And the queen said, ‘Yes, a Ball,’ with the greatest alacrity. And Esmeralda hopped up and down in glee, she was so happy; and she danced and danced until off flew seventy-nine of the diamonds from her lace petticoat, and rolled away into as many cracks and crevices in the corners of the marble hall. But she didn’t care; for there were bushels in her room, and a dozen or two women always sitting on their crickets, with their needles threaded with silver thread, ready to sew on more.