During a great feast the people wanted to see the little prince, and they crowded around him so close that the nurse dropped him and hurt his leg. They thought nothing of this for a while, but as he grew up to be a large boy and wanted to play like other boys it was found that he was lame and had to go around on crutches. The people loved him very much, and called him “Our lame prince.”
After a while the king and queen died, and the prince’s uncle, who was a bad man, came in with his followers, and in spite of the tears of the people, sent the little prince away and confined him in a tall tower in a desert region.
One night as he was sleeping with his windows open he was awakened by a tap on his shoulder. He sat up in bed and saw standing by him a queer little old woman in a gray cloak. She said to him,
“Little prince, I am your fairy godmother, and I want you to come with me and ride over your kingdom on my cloak.”
She spread the gray cloak out on the floor and she and the prince sat down on it. The fairy waved her wand and the cloak flew out of the window, taking them both along. Over the desert and forest and into the town they went. She and the prince were invisible so long as they stood on the cloak. They flew into the palace yard and into the great room where a ball was going on and everybody was dancing and feasting. Nobody could see them of course.
The old uncle had told the people that the lame prince was dead, and had ordered them to come to this feast and dance whether they liked it or not. As the cloak carried the prince and the old fairy godmother into the room the prince heard his uncle say: “I tell you he is dead! He fell off the tower and broke his neck.”
The prince stepped off the cloak and said loudly: “No, I am not dead! I am here, alive and well.”
The people saw him standing in their midst and set up so great a shout that the old uncle was seized with fear and trembling.
“Our prince is alive! long live our lame prince!” shouted all the people.