“she put around little boy’s neck a fairy kiss”
But Sooths must be obeyed; so she sent for a gentle Giant, and told him to carry Little Boy to the Queen’s tailor and to dress him like a fairy Prince, and to set him down on the roadside near his father’s house. Then when the Giant took him up in his great arms, all sound asleep, she put around Little Boy’s neck a fairy kiss tied fast to a gold chain, and this was for good luck. After this the Giant walked away, and Goody Two-Shoes went into the house and cried for two days and a night.
When the Giant came to Common-Folks’-land, he laid Little Boy beside the high-road and went home. Toward evening, the King’s daughter went by, and seeing Little Boy, who, as I have said, was now grown tall and dressed all in velvet and jewels, she came and stood by him, and when she saw the fairy kiss hanging around his neck she knelt down and kissed him. Then all the old ladies cried, “Fy! for shame!” but you know she could not help it. As for Little Boy, he kept ever so still, being now wide awake, but having hopes that she would kiss him again, which she did, twice. As he still seemed to sleep, he was put in the Princess’s chariot and taken to the King’s palace.
At last, when every one had looked at him, they put him on a bed, and when morning came he opened his eyes, and began to walk around to stretch his legs. But as he went downstairs he met the King, who said to him: “Fair Sir, what is the name of thy beautiful self?” To which he answered: “I am called Prince Little Boy.” “Ha! ha!” said the King. “That was the name of the bad brick-maker. Perchance thou art he.” Then he called his guards, and Little Boy was at once shut up in a huge tower, for the King was not quite sure, or else he would have put him to death at once. But after Little Boy had been there three days he put his head out of a window and saw the Princess in the garden. Then he said:
“Sweet lady, look up.”
“Alas!” said she, “they have sent for thy mother, and if she says thou art Little Boy they will kill thee, and, alas! I love thee.”
“Ah!” he cried, “come to this tower at midnight, and cast me kisses a many through the night; blow a kiss to the north, blow a kiss to the south, to the east, to the west, from the flower of thy mouth and it may be that one will float to Fairy-land and fetch us help, for if not, I be but a dead man.”
All this she did because she was brave and loved him. She stood in the dark and blew kisses to the four winds, and then listened, and by and by came a noise like great wings, and all the air was filled with strange, sweet odors, the like of which that Princess never smelled again.
As for Little Boy, he was aware of a Giant who was as tall as the tower. “Sir,” said the Giant, “it is told me that you must keep your eyes shut until I bid them to open. I have brought the Kiss Queen to pay you a visit. No man has ever seen her; for if he did he could never, never kiss or be kissed of any mortal lips.”
“Sir,” said Little Boy, “the Princess is more sweet than any that kiss in Fairy-land.”