“Oh, he was a funny man,” she said. “Can’t he come and do it again?”
Another wise man suggested that all her favourite toys should be broken up. But when he went into the nursery and began smashing her beautiful dolls and playthings, the princess clapped her hands and jumped about and laughed more heartily than ever.
“What fun, what fun,” she said, and she too began throwing the things about. So that plan had to be given up also.
Other wise men came, but as many of their suggestions were cruel and unkind ones, naturally the king and queen would not hear of them, and at last they began to fear that nothing could be done.
Now in a small village on the borders of the king’s great park, there lived a widow with her little daughter Marigold.
They were very poor, and the mother earned what she could by doing odd jobs of washing, sewing, or cleaning for her neighbours. But she fell ill, and poor Marigold was in great trouble, for she had no money to buy comforts for her mother.
Their little savings had to go for food to keep them alive, and every day these grew less and less.
Marigold knew all about the little princess at the castle. She had often heard speak of her, and had even seen her sometimes riding about the roads on her white pony. And one day as she was cooking the midday meal an idea came into her head.
As soon as dinner was over, she put on her hat and cloak and told her mother that she was going up to the king’s palace to see if she could make the princess cry and so earn the five hundred crowns.
Her mother did her best to persuade her not to go.