"You have never used it; you dislike it?"
He hesitated, not wishing to be impolite. "Don't you think it's just a little old and shabby for a prince?"
The old woman laughed very sweetly.
"Why, if all the princes in the world craved for it, they couldn't get it, unless I gave it to them. Old and shabby! It's the most valuable thing imaginable! I thought I would give it to you, because—because you are different from other people."
"Am I?" asked the prince with tears in his eyes.
She touched his poor little legs. "These are not like the legs of other little boys."
"Indeed!—my nurse never told me that."
"I tell you, because I love you."
"Tell me what, dear godmother?"
"That you will never be able to walk, or run, or jump, but your life may be a very happy life for all that. Do not be afraid."