“As you,” said Ned.
“No interruptions, sir! She was very beautiful, and very, very hard to satisfy. A great many lovers came to ask her to marry them. None of them pleased her, but so many came that to save trouble she wrote a big ‘No!’ on her visiting cards, and gave every man one as he came in, and this saved a great deal of trouble. When there were no more lovers left in the world but only three, she began to be afraid she would never get married at all. So she tore up her cards, and was polite to these three. Their names were Hurdy-Gurdy and Trombone and Mandolin. At length her father said she must make up her mind. At first she thought she would draw lots, but by and by she resolved to marry the most courageous of the three.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Jack, “I like that.”
“One day they were all four walking by the river, and, as if by accident, she fell in. ‘Oh, dear!’ she cried, ‘I shall drown.’ Then Hurdy-Gurdy sat down and began to whittle a shingle; but Trombone jumped in, and, as she flopped about a great deal, he was like to drown himself. Then in jumped Mandolin, and pulled them both out by the hair.
“Then all three spread themselves in the sun, to dry. And the princess said, ‘Now, which is the most courageous?’
“Trombone cried, ‘I! Because I dashed in to save you, without hesitation.’
“‘But,’ said Mandolin, ‘you did not save her. I pulled you both out.’
“‘I was first,’ said Trombone.
“‘Certainly!’ said the princess, which her name was Henrietta, and she was so called because she was fond of algebra, and preferred even an improper fraction to the most virtuous of men. Said she, ‘What good was your courage, if it only served to drown us both? You are neither of you as brave as me.’”
“Oh!” cried Ned.