The Magic Fishbone | Page 4

gave the spice-box, till they were all cooks, and all running about at work, she sitting in the middle smothered in the great coarse apron, nursing baby. By and by the broth was done, and the baby woke up smiling like an angel, and was trusted to the sedatest Princess to hold, while the other Princes and Princesses were squeezed into a far-off corner to look at the Princess Alicia turning out the saucepan-full of broth, for fear (as they were always getting into trouble) they should get splashed and scalded. When the broth came tumbling out, steaming beautifully, and smelling like a nosegay good to eat, they clapped their hands. That made the baby clap his hands; and that, and his looking as if he had a comic toothache, made all the Princes and Princesses laugh. So the Princess Alicia said, "Laugh and be good, and after dinner we will make him a nest on the floor in a corner, and he shall sit in his nest and see a dance of eighteen cooks." That delighted the young Princes and Princesses, and they ate up all the broth, and washed up all the plates and dishes, and cleared away, and pushed the table into a corner, and then they in their cooks' caps, and the Princess Alicia in the smothering coarse apron that belonged to the cook that had run away with her own true love that was the very tall but very tipsy soldier, danced a dance of eighteen cooks before the angelic baby, who forgot his swelled face and his black eye, and crowed with joy.
[Illustration: The Dance of the Eighteen Cooks]
And so then, once more the Princess Alicia saw King Watkins the First, her father, standing in the doorway looking on, and he said: "What have you been doing, Alicia?"
"Cooking and contriving, Papa."
"What else have you been doing, Alicia?"
"Keeping the children light-hearted, Papa."
"Where is the magic fish-bone, Alicia?"
"In my pocket, Papa."
"I thought you had lost it?"
"O, no, Papa."
"Or forgotten it?"
"No, indeed, Papa."
The King then sighed so heavily, and seemed so low-spirited, and sat down so miserably, leaning his head upon his hand, and his elbow upon the kitchen table pushed away in the corner, that the seventeen Princes and Princesses crept softly out of the kitchen, and left him alone with the Princess Alicia and the angelic baby.
"What is the matter, Papa?"
"I am dreadfully poor, my child."
"Have you no money at all, Papa?"
[Illustration: "What is the matter, Papa?"]
"None my child."
"Is there no way left of getting any, Papa?"
"No way," said the King. "I have tried very hard, and I have tried all ways."
When she heard those last words, the Princess Alicia began to put her hand into the pocket where she kept the magic fish-bone.
"Papa," said she, "when we have tried very hard, and tried all ways, we must have done our very very best?"
"No doubt, Alicia."
"When we have done our very very best, Papa, and that is not enough, then I think the right time must have come for asking help of others." This was the very secret connected with the magic fish-bone, which she had found out for herself from the good fairy Grandmarina's words, and which she had so often whispered to her beautiful and fashionable friend the Duchess.
So she took out of her pocket the magic fish-bone that had been dried and rubbed and polished till it shone like mother-of-pearl; and she gave it one little kiss and wished it was quarter day. And immediately it was quarter day; and the King's quarter's salary came rattling down the chimney, and bounced into the middle of the floor.
But this was not half of what happened, no not a quarter, for immediately afterwards the good fairy Grandmarina came riding in, in a carriage and four (Peacocks), with Mr Pickles's boy up behind, dressed in silver and gold, with a cocked hat, powdered hair, pink silk stockings, a jewelled cane, and a nosegay. Down jumped Mr Pickles's boy with his cocked hat in his hand and wonderfully polite (being entirely changed by enchantment), and handed Grandmarina out, and there she stood in her rich shot silk smelling of dried lavender, fanning herself with a sparkling fan.
"Alicia, my dear," said this charming old Fairy, "how do you do, I hope I see you pretty well, give me a kiss."
The Princess Alicia embraced her, and then Grandmarina turned to the King, and said rather sharply:--"Are you good?"
[Illustration: "Alicia, my dear ... how do you do?"]
The King said he hoped so.
"I suppose you know the reason, now, why my god-Daughter here," kissing the Princess again, "did not apply to the fish-bone sooner?" said the Fairy.
The King made her a shy bow.
"Ah! but you didn't then!" said the Fairy.
The King made her a shyer bow.
"Any more reasons to ask