The Wooden Horse-3

"What are you looking at?" he asked a man beside him. The man gave him a scrutinizing glance

and replied, "Our king has a princess. No one in the world can match her in beauty. The king

loves her so much that he will not let anybody look at her. The princess used to live in the

palace, but the king thought that she was not safe enough there, so he has had a mansion

built in the sky and the princess lives there all by herself. Every day, when the court is

dismissed, the king goes up to see her. He has been there for quite a long while and is

expected to return at any moment. That's why everyone is here, waiting for him."

This sounded quite strange to the little prince.

"Surely it's impossible to build a palace in the sky?"

"The palace was built by an immortal, and only the king can go there," said the man.

The little prince bore these words in mind. That night he mounted his wooden horse and flew

up into the sky, where sure enough, a magnificent palace GREeted his eyes. He flew directly

to the door, dismounted from his horse and walked in. Seeing a man come in, the princess at

first took him for her father. When she discovered her mistake, she thought he must be a god

come down from heaven and hurriedly stood up


to GREet him. "What a lovely young lady!" thought the prince. "What a handsome young man!"

thought the princess. They fell in love at first sight and without knowing what they were

doing, they walked up to each other and embraced.

The following morning the little prince returned to the inn on his horse, and later that

day, the king came to the palace in the sky as usual. The first thing he did was to weigh

the princess. He used to do this every day, for he knew that a woman would put on weight if

she had touched a man. As he weighed her that day, he found the princess two pounds heavier

than usual. He flew into a rage, he scowled and his beard stood on end. People were very

puzzled that day because the king returned to his palace rather early. Seeing that he was in

a bad mood, his courtiers came forward to ask what was troubling him. The king told them

what had happened. "Who else can go up there but me?" he asked, and then added, "You must

find me a way to arrest this man."