CHAPTER 6. NOEL'S PRINCESS
She happened quite accidentally. We were not looking for a Princess atall just then; but Noel had said he was going to find a Princess all byhimself; and marry her--and he really did. Which was rather odd, becausewhen people say things are going to befall, very often they don't. Itwas different, of course, with the prophets of old.
We did not get any treasure by it, except twelve chocolate drops; but wemight have done, and it was an adventure, anyhow.
Greenwich Park is a jolly good place to play in, especially the partsthat aren't near Greenwich. The parts near the Heath are first-rate.I often wish the Park was nearer our house; but I suppose a Park is adifficult thing to move.
Sometimes we get Eliza to put lunch in a basket, and we go up to thePark. She likes that--it saves cooking dinner for us; and sometimes shesays of her own accord, 'I've made some pasties for you, and you mightas well go into the Park as not. It's a lovely day.'
She always tells us to rinse out the cup at the drinking-fountain, andthe girls do; but I always put my head under the tap and drink. Then youare an intrepid hunter at a mountain stream--and besides, you're sureit's clean. Dicky does the same, and so does H. O. But Noel alwaysdrinks out of the cup. He says it is a golden goblet wrought byenchanted gnomes.
The day the Princess happened was a fine, hot day, last October, and wewere quite tired with the walk up to the Park.
We always go in by the little gate at the top of Croom's Hill. It isthe postern gate that things always happen at in stories. It was dustywalking, but when we got in the Park it was ripping, so we rested a bit,and lay on our backs, and looked up at the trees, and wished we couldplay monkeys. I have done it before now, but the Park-keeper makes a rowif he catches you.
When we'd rested a little, Alice said--
'It was a long way to the enchanted wood, but it is very nice now we arethere. I wonder what we shall find in it?'
'We shall find deer,' said Dicky, 'if we go to look; but they go on theother side of the Park because of the people with buns.'
Saying buns made us think of lunch, so we had it; and when we had donewe scratched a hole under a tree and buried the papers, because we knowit spoils pretty places to leave beastly, greasy papers lying about. Iremember Mother teaching me and Dora that, when we were quite little.I wish everybody's parents would teach them this useful lesson, and thesame about orange peel.
When we'd eaten everything there was, Alice whispered--
'I see the white witch bear yonder among the trees! Let's track it andslay it in its lair.'
'I am the bear,' said Noel; so he crept away, and we followed him amongthe trees. Often the witch bear was out of sight, and then you didn'tknow where it would jump out from; but sometimes we saw it, and justfollowed.
'When we catch it there'll be a great fight,' said Oswald; 'and I shallbe Count Folko of Mont Faucon.'
'I'll be Gabrielle,' said Dora. She is the only one of us who likesdoing girl's parts.
'I'll be Sintram,' said Alice; 'and H. O. can be the Little Master.'
'What about Dicky?'
'Oh, I can be the Pilgrim with the bones.'
'Hist!' whispered Alice. 'See his white fairy fur gleaming amid yondercovert!'
And I saw a bit of white too. It was Noel's collar, and it had comeundone at the back.
We hunted the bear in and out of the trees, and then we lost himaltogether; and suddenly we found the wall of the Park--in a place whereI'm sure there wasn't a wall before. Noel wasn't anywhere about, andthere was a door in the wall. And it was open; so we went through.
'The bear has hidden himself in these mountain fastnesses,' Oswald said.'I will draw my good sword and after him.'
So I drew the umbrella, which Dora always will bring in case it rains,because Noel gets a cold on the chest at the least thing--and we wenton.
The other side of the wall it was a stable yard, all cobble-stones.
There was nobody about--but we could hear a man rubbing down a horseand hissing in the stable; so we crept very quietly past, and Alicewhispered--
''Tis the lair of the Monster Serpent; I hear his deadly hiss! Beware!Courage and despatch!'
We went over the stones on tiptoe, and we found another wall withanother door in it on the other side. We went through that too, ontiptoe. It really was an adventure. And there we were in a shrubbery,and we saw something white through the trees. Dora said it was the whitebear. That is so like Dora. She always begins to take part in a playjust when the rest of us are getting tired of it. I don't mean thisunkindly, because I am very fond of Dora. I cannot forget how kind shewas when I had bronchitis; and ingratitude is a dreadful vice. But it isquite true.
'It is not a bear,' said Oswald; and we all went on, still on tiptoe,round a twisty path and on to a lawn, and there was Noel. His collar hadcome undone, as I said, and he had an inky mark on his face that he madejust before we left the house, and he wouldn't let Dora wash it off,and one of his bootlaces was coming down. He was standing looking at alittle girl; she was the funniest little girl you ever saw.
She was like a china doll--the sixpenny kind; she had a white face, andlong yellow hair, done up very tight in two pigtails; her forehead wasvery big and lumpy, and her cheeks came high up, like little shelvesunder her eyes. Her eyes were small and blue. She had on a funny blackfrock, with curly braid on it, and button boots that went almost up toher knees. Her legs were very thin. She was sitting in a hammock chairnursing a blue kitten--not a sky-blue one, of course, but the colourof a new slate pencil. As we came up we heard her say to Noel--'Who areyou?'
Noel had forgotten about the bear, and he was taking his favourite part,so he said--'I'm Prince Camaralzaman.'
The funny little girl looked pleased--
'I thought at first you were a common boy,' she said. Then she saw therest of us and said--
'Are you all Princesses and Princes too?'
Of course we said 'Yes,' and she said--
'I am a Princess also.' She said it very well too, exactly as if it weretrue. We were very glad, because it is so seldom you meet any childrenwho can begin to play right off without having everything explained tothem. And even then they will say they are going to 'pretend to be' alion, or a witch, or a king. Now this little girl just said 'I _am_ aPrincess.' Then she looked at Oswald and said, 'I fancy I've seen you atBaden.'
Of course Oswald said, 'Very likely.'
The little girl had a funny voice, and all her words were quite plain,each word by itself; she didn't talk at all like we do.
H. O. asked her what the cat's name was, and she said 'Katinka.' ThenDicky said--
'Let's get away from the windows; if you play near windows some oneinside generally knocks at them and says "Don't".'
The Princess put down the cat very carefully and said--
'I am forbidden to walk off the grass.'
'That's a pity,' said Dora.
'But I will if you like,' said the Princess.
'You mustn't do things you are forbidden to do,' Dora said; but Dickyshowed us that there was some more grass beyond the shrubs with only agravel path between. So I lifted the Princess over the gravel, so thatshe should be able to say she hadn't walked off the grass. When we gotto the other grass we all sat down, and the Princess asked us ifwe liked 'dragees' (I know that's how you spell it, for I askedAlbert-next-door's uncle).
We said we thought not, but she pulled a real silver box out of herpocket and showed us; they were just flat, round chocolates. We had twoeach. Then we asked her her name, and she began, and when she began shewent on, and on, and on, till I thought she was never going to stop. H.O. said she had fifty names, but Dicky is very good at figures, and hesays there were only eighteen. The first were Pauline, Alexandra, Alice,and Mary was one, and Victoria, for we all heard that, and it endedup with Hildegarde Cunigonde something or other, Princess of somethingelse.
When she'd done, H. O. said, 'That's jolly good! Say it again!' and shedid, but even then we co
uldn't remember it. We told her our names, butshe thought they were too short, so when it was Noel's turn he said hewas Prince Noel Camaralzaman Ivan Constantine Charlemagne James JohnEdward Biggs Maximilian Bastable Prince of Lewisham, but when she askedhim to say it again of course he could only get the first two namesright, because he'd made it up as he went on.
So the Princess said, 'You are quite old enough to know your own name.'She was very grave and serious.
She told us that she was the fifth cousin of Queen Victoria. We askedwho the other cousins were, but she did not seem to understand. She wenton and said she was seven times removed. She couldn't tell us what thatmeant either, but Oswald thinks it means that the Queen's cousins areso fond of her that they will keep coming bothering, so the Queen'sservants have orders to remove them. This little girl must have beenvery fond of the Queen to try so often to see her, and to have beenseven times removed. We could see that it is considered something tobe proud of; but we thought it was hard on the Queen that her cousinswouldn't let her alone.
Presently the little girl asked us where our maids and governesses were.
We told her we hadn't any just now. And she said--
'How pleasant! And did you come here alone?'
'Yes,' said Dora; 'we came across the Heath.'
'You are very fortunate,' said the little girl. She sat very upright onthe grass, with her fat little hands in her lap. 'I should like to go onthe Heath. There are donkeys there, with white saddle covers. I shouldlike to ride them, but my governess will not permit.'
'I'm glad we haven't a governess,' H. O. said. 'We ride the donkeyswhenever we have any pennies, and once I gave the man another penny tomake it gallop.'
'You are indeed fortunate!' said the Princess again, and when she lookedsad the shelves on her cheeks showed more than ever. You could have laida sixpence on them quite safely if you had had one.
'Never mind,' said Noel; 'I've got a lot of money. Come out and have aride now.' But the little girl shook her head and said she was afraid itwould not be correct.
Dora said she was quite right; then all of a sudden came one of thoseuncomfortable times when nobody can think of anything to say, so we satand looked at each other. But at last Alice said we ought to be going.
'Do not go yet,' the little girl said. 'At what time did they order yourcarriage?'
'Our carriage is a fairy one, drawn by griffins, and it comes when wewish for it,' said Noel.
The little girl looked at him very queerly, and said, 'That is out of apicture-book.'
Then Noel said he thought it was about time he was married if we were tobe home in time for tea. The little girl was rather stupid over it,but she did what we told her, and we married them with Dora'spocket-handkerchief for a veil, and the ring off the back of one of thebuttons on H. O.'s blouse just went on her little finger.
Then we showed her how to play cross-touch, and puss in the corner,and tag. It was funny, she didn't know any games but battledore andshuttlecock and les graces. But she really began to laugh at last andnot to look quite so like a doll.
She was Puss and was running after Dicky when suddenly she stopped shortand looked as if she was going to cry. And we looked too, and there weretwo prim ladies with little mouths and tight hair. One of them said inquite an awful voice, 'Pauline, who are these children?' and her voicewas gruff; with very curly R's.
The little girl said we were Princes and Princesses--which was silly, toa grown-up person that is not a great friend of yours.
The gruff lady gave a short, horrid laugh, like a husky bark, and said--
'Princes, indeed! They're only common children!'
Dora turned very red and began to speak, but the little girl cried out'Common children! Oh, I am so glad! When I am grown up I'll always playwith common children.'
And she ran at us, and began to kiss us one by one, beginningwith Alice; she had got to H. O. when the horrid lady said--'YourHighness--go indoors at once!'
The little girl answered, 'I won't!'
Then the prim lady said--'Wilson, carry her Highness indoors.'
And the little girl was carried away screaming, and kicking with herlittle thin legs and her buttoned boots, and between her screams sheshrieked:
'Common children! I am glad, glad, glad! Common children! Commonchildren!'
The nasty lady then remarked--'Go at once, or I will send for thepolice!'
So we went. H. O. made a face at her and so did Alice, but Oswald tookoff his cap and said he was sorry if she was annoyed about anything;for Oswald has always been taught to be polite to ladies, however nasty.Dicky took his off, too, when he saw me do it; he says he did it first,but that is a mistake. If I were really a common boy I should say it wasa lie.
Then we all came away, and when we got outside Dora said, 'So she wasreally a Princess. Fancy a Princess living _there_!'
'Even Princesses have to live somewhere,' said Dicky.
'And I thought it was play. And it was real. I wish I'd known! I shouldhave liked to ask her lots of things,' said Alice.
H. O. said he would have liked to ask her what she had for dinner andwhether she had a crown.
I felt, myself, we had lost a chance of finding out a great deal aboutkings and queens. I might have known such a stupid-looking little girlwould never have been able to pretend, as well as that.
So we all went home across the Heath, and made dripping toast for tea.
When we were eating it Noel said, 'I wish I could give _her_ some! It isvery good.'
He sighed as he said it, and his mouth was very full, so we knew he wasthinking of his Princess. He says now that she was as beautiful as theday, but we remember her quite well, and she was nothing of the kind.