THE SONG OF THE PRINCESS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 225, 21 September 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE SONG OF THE PRINCESS

(Continued from last week.) "Once, long ago, there was a fairy who was not content with staying near fairyland, but always riamed far away. Day after day, the other fairies warned her, but she mocked them, and flew further than ever. Then one day, she was flying near a mountain, a cave opened, and an evil wizard seized her. Never again was she able to return to Fairyland, unless a princess who was quite content to remain at home, journeyed to the cave. There *the princess must sing a song so sweet that it would bring tears to the wizard's eyes."

"Will you go?" asked the queen, and the princess answered, "Yes." All the birds in the garden began to sing in chorus, and as the princess listened she heard them sing, "Sing to the wizard of his boyhood days, among the cool, green woods."

That night the little princess said farewell to the king, and set out to the wizard's cave, while before her flew the birds, showing her the way. For many mouths she travelled, until at last she saw a black mountain rising above the clouds. "We can go no further," sang the birds, "for that is the Wizard's home,'' and they turned back The princess went on alone, and as she went, tall briars caught at her gown, and brambles twined about her feet and tried to hold her back. But ever she went on, thinking of the little fairy inside that awesome cave. At last she stood outside the cave, and tremblingly knocked.

There was a sound as though a thousand cannons were fired simultaneously, and out stalked the wizard. His clothes were made of bearskin, and floated on the wind. Icicles hung from his cap, and he carried a sword as long as the princess. The princess was afraid, but she began to sing. Shj| sang of the cool, green woods and thelCinds whispering through them; of th<w laughing streams and' the singing of| the birds, and as she sang, tears gathered in the wizard's eyes, and ran dMvn his cheeks. Then he, too, began to sing, and as he sang, the chains fell away from the fairy, and she was free again. Then the wizard vowed to become a follower of the queen, and to abjure magic forever. They all three went back through the woods, and once again the princess was in her beloved garden. When the moon shone that night, the queen came to the princess to reward her. For her gift, she gave her the award of immortality. Never would the princess glow old, or die, but as a little grey nightingale, she would sing away the years in her beautiful garden. And if you wander sometimes among the woods, on a mid-summer's eve, you can hear the little princess singing, hidden from human sight. And she sings of the fountains that play, the flowers that bloom, and the trees that sigh in her garden. By Lily Trowern.