THE INHERITED PRINCESS

THE INHERITED PRINCESS

Once there was a little boy named Ting who, as this story opens, was just celebrating his eighth birthday. And you may be sure it was a pretty fine birthday celebration because Ting was the Crown Prince of Pouf and heir to the throne.

"Now, Ting," said his father the King, as they stood at the palace window watching the magnificent parade given in the Prince's honor, "I have another surprise for you. I am going to give you a chance to prove your princely courage by rescuing the Inherited Princess from the enchanted castle."

Then he told Ting that hundreds and hundreds of years ago, this Princess, who was just about Ting's age and quite beautiful, had been carried off by her uncle, a celebrated scoundrel with a magical education, and shut up in an enchanted castle with a twenty-headed Gallopus to guard her.

"My," said the Prince, "she must be quite an old lady by this time."

"No, indeed," said the King, "she is just as young as ever. One never grows old in an enchanted castle. But if she didn't grow old the wicked uncle did, so much so that he finally died of it. Then as no one had ever found a way to rescue the Princess, and as her uncle had stated in his will that she was not to be set free until she was rescued, the heirs of the wicked uncle had to let things go on as they were, so the Princess still remains in the castle with the twenty-headed Gallopus on guard."

"But," said Ting, "doesn't a Gallopus ever grow old?"

"Not that I ever heard of," replied the King, "or at least this one does not, for he still sits in the same spot in the castle yard as he did before I was born."

"Phew!" exclaimed Ting, "he must be a terrible creature."

"Well," said the monarch, "he isn't a thing to be trifled with. And that is the reason I think it would be fine for you to celebrate your birthday by fighting him and setting the Princess free. Don't you?"

"H'mm," murmured the Prince, "I don't know. I can think of other things I would much rather do."

"Why, I am surprised," said the King. "I should think you'd be glad of the chance. I only wish some one had suggested the idea on my eighth birthday. Just think how famous you'll be if you conquer the twenty-headed Gallopus."

"Yes," said Ting, "but just think how I'll be if I don't."

"Pooh! Pooh!" remarked the Prime Minister, who sat on the other side of Ting, "that's no way for a prince to talk, especially as we've announced to the public that you are about to rescue the Inherited Princess from the enchanted castle."

"Yes," said the King, "and every one is talking about it, so you can't back out unless you wish to disgrace me."

The minute the parade was over he started off.

And of course, as Ting had no desire to bring disgrace upon his family, he saw he would have to fight the twenty-headed Gallopus whether he liked it or not, though how he was ever going to do it, he could not imagine. However, as the longer he thought about the matter the more discouraged he became, he finally decided to go and have a look at the monster and see what his chances were. So the minute the parade was over, he started off.

Now a twenty-headed Gallopus is shaped like a star with twenty points, and on each point is a head. And each head has two pop eyes, two big ears, a wide mouth with a complete collection of long, sharp teeth, and a turned up nose. And when a twenty-headed Gallopus wishes to show a person that he does not care for his society, he turns slowly about and stares at him fixedly with his forty eyes, which makes a person feel very uncomfortable. So you can easily imagine how Ting felt when he reached the enchanted castle and confronted the twenty-headed Gallopus in the courtyard.

"Well," cried the twenty-headed Gallopus, speaking with about ten of his heads and making a fearful racket, "what do you want around here?"

Whereupon the Prince told him how he was expected to rescue the Inherited Princess, and had come to see what the Gallopus looked like before he started to work.

"Oh, you did, did you?" roared the monster. "Well, what do you think?"

"I think," said Ting, "that you're the most awful thing I ever saw. You're enough to guard a dozen princesses and it isn't fair to ask a little boy of eight to fight you."

"It's not only not fair," said the Gallopus, "but it's downright mean, not to say ridiculous." Then he laughed with all his heads at once until the ground actually trembled. "Don't you know," he went on, "that I'd have to lose every one of my heads before the Princess could be freed? Even if you chopped off one or two it would be no use. I must lose all of them before the spell is broken."

And with that he burst into a rollicking ditty—

Three rousing cheers for a job like mine,

For I must confess it is simply fine

To sit all day and take your ease

And just do nothing as long as you please.

For who would dare to brave my wrath?

And who would dare to cross my path

To try and win this princess fair?

Oh, can you tell me who would dare?

"Well," said the twenty-headed Gallopus, when he had finished, "can you tell me who would dare?"

"No," said Ting, "I can't. I thought maybe I would, but I've changed my mind."

"And quite right, too," said the monster, "you show good sense, for it is certainly foolish to attempt what is impossible. And besides, the Princess is very happy in the castle anyway."

"How do you know?" asked the Prince.

"Well," said the Gallopus, "she has never complained, and even if she did I would be too bashful to listen to her. I don't know what it is, but it makes me dreadfully nervous to talk to girls. I get so confused and everything. Do you?"

"Oh, no," said Ting, "I like to talk to girls."

The twenty-headed Gallopus looked at him admiringly. "Hum," he said, "you're much braver than I thought you were. No wonder you thought you could fight me. And now I think you had better run along back home for I want to take a little nap."

But Ting had no intention of running back home just then, no indeed, for chancing to look up at the castle windows he had seen the Princess peeping out at him. And one sight of her was enough to make him want to stay there forever. So he told the twenty-headed Gallopus not to mind him but to go ahead and take his nap.

"I won't disturb you," he said. "I'll be just as quiet as a mouse."

"Very well," replied the Gallopus, "if you'll promise solemnly not to make any noise or chop off any of my heads, I'll do it, for I need the sleep. One of my heads had a headache last night and it kept all the others awake."

And with that he wobbled into his cave and began to snore like twenty locomotives all starting from the station at once.

"My gracious!" gasped the Prince, "he needn't worry about the noise I make."

Then he hurried across the courtyard until he came to the window where the Princess was sitting.

"Hello," he shouted at the top of his lungs. "How do you do?"

"Very well, thank you," screamed the Princess, leaning out of the window. "Isn't it dreadful the noise that old Gallopus makes?"

"Terrible," yelled Ting, thinking how lovely she was, all pink in the face from shouting so. "I've come to rescue you."

"Oh, isn't that splendid!" shrieked the Princess, smiling at him. "Do you think you can do it?"

"Sure," bawled Ting, "I'll find out some way. I didn't think I could at first, but since I've seen you, I've simply got to."

And when he said that the Inherited Princess grew pinker than ever and did not seem to know what to say. But even if she had known what to say she probably would not have said it for all of a sudden the snoring stopped and the twenty-headed Gallopus came hurrying out of his cave as mad as could be.

"Didn't you tell me you wouldn't make any noise?" he demanded of Ting, angrily. "You said if I took a nap you'd be as quiet as a mouse, and yet you've made such a rumpus it woke me up. Such a hooting and tooting I never heard."

"That wasn't me," said Ting. "That was you—snoring."

"I—snoring?" howled the monster, furiously. "Oh, that's—that's the worst insult yet. I never snore, sir, never. I—I wouldn't know a snore if I heard one. And even if I did snore it would sound like a harp or something like that, and not like a roll of musketry. The idea, telling me I snore!"

Thereupon, with every one of his twenty heads snarling, and his body whirling about like a pin-wheel, the Gallopus started for the Prince. And the minute he started the Prince started also, in the opposite direction.

"Oh," shrieked the Princess, "he'll eat you."

"He'd—he'd better not," cried Ting, running around and around the courtyard as fast as he could.

"Bah!" shouted the Gallopus, "don't tell me what I'd better not do. And stop running so. How am I ever going to catch you if you run around so?"

All of which showed what a silly old thing the twenty-headed Gallopus was, for he might have known that Ting would not stop running around. Indeed, he ran so fast that the monster finally stopped and stood panting with his forty cheeks all puffed out. And then it was that the Princess leaned out of the window, extended her hand, and Ting, giving a leap, seized it and jumped in at the casement where she sat.

"Now," he jeered at the monster, "catch me if you can."

"I don't need to catch you," replied the twenty-headed Gallopus, calmly, "the enchanted castle has caught you and that's enough, as you'll soon find out."

"Why, what do you mean?" asked the Prince, in a tone of alarm.

"Oh, nothing much," chuckled the monster, "only that in an hour you will begin to turn into a spider, that's all, but it's enough, I guess. Hee, hee!"

With another shriek the Princess fainted away, and as for Ting, he almost fainted too, at the thought of turning into anything so horrid.

"I don't believe it," he said, glaring at the Gallopus.

"Just as you please," answered the monster, "but when you're a spider you'll believe it. That castle was built to hold the Princess and nobody else. If anybody else goes in they turn into a spider unless they come out in an hour."

Well, you can imagine how Ting felt, and you can also imagine how the Princess felt when she came out of her swoon.

"I like you awfully, Ting," she said, "but really I'm afraid I could not like you as a spider."

"I should say not," replied the boy. "I couldn't like myself that way."

Then he pulled out his watch, looked at it and shuddered. "Only three quarters of an hour left," he groaned.

And there they sat at the window worrying and worrying and worrying, and wondering what to do. And underneath the window sat the twenty-headed Gallopus gloating and gloating and gloating over the way they were worrying. And finally the three-quarters of an hour passed and they knew if Ting stayed in the castle another minute he would turn into a spider.

Underneath the window sat the twenty-headed Gallopus

"Oh, dear," said the boy, "I guess I'll have to go out and be eaten. It's bad enough but I think I'd rather be eaten than be a spider."

"Yes," said the Princess, "and I think I should, too, only I would like to disappoint that Gallopus. I know he'd much rather eat you than have you turn into a spider."

"Oh, do you think so?" said Ting.

"I'm sure of it," responded the Princess.

"Then," said the boy, "maybe I can make a bargain with him."

So he leaned out of the window and called to the monster: "you might as well go away now. I've decided to become a spider."

"What!" shouted the twenty-headed Gallopus, "why, you must be crazy. Why—why, it's an awful feeling to be a spider. It's much nicer to be eaten. Come on out and I'll swallow you whole and it won't hurt a bit."

"No," said Ting, "I think I prefer to be a spider."

"Oh, go on," said the Gallopus, looking awfully disappointed, "you can't mean it."

"Yes, I do," said the Prince, "although I might change my mind if you let the Princess go free."

"Never," cried the monster, gnashing his teeth.

"Very well, then," said Ting, "you'll not eat me." And he started to draw in his head.

"Wait, wait," shouted the Gallopus, "wait a moment. Let me think." Then after a moment he groaned. "All right, I'll do it, though I ought to be ashamed of myself. But it has been so many years since I tasted a boy I simply cannot resist the temptation. So come out and be eaten and the moment I gulp you down I'll go off to my cave and shut my eyes, and the Princess can come out of the castle."

And the instant the monster said that the Prince jumped out of the window, because he knew if he hesitated the Princess, who had been listening in horrified silence, would never let him be eaten to set her free.

"Ah, ha!" cried the Gallopus, smacking his twenty pairs of lips, when he saw Ting standing before him, "now I have got you." Then he burst into a roar of laughter. "I knew that story about the spider would fetch you. That's the reason I made it up."

"You made it up?" cried Ting. "Do you mean to say it wasn't true?"

With another laugh the Gallopus shook every one of his heads merrily. "Of course it wasn't true, and only a ninny like you would have believed it."

"Is that so!" cried the Princess.

And as she spoke she jumped out of the window and marched right up to the monster. "You wicked, wicked creature," she said, her cheeks flaming and her eyes sparkling like diamonds.

And as she stood there right in front of the Gallopus she looked so lovely Ting felt he would be willing to be eaten a dozen times for her sake. And as for the twenty-headed Gallopus, he blushed scarlet with confusion. Of course he had often seen the Princess at her window, but never before in the sunshine outside the castle where she was a hundred times as beautiful. So he just stared and stared with all his mouths open, and shuffled his hundred and twenty feet uneasily. And then all of a sudden his heads began to get dizzy, and he felt as though he would sink through the ground with bashfulness. And then—as the Princess, growing more dazzling every minute, advanced still closer—bing—he lost his twenty heads entirely. Bing, bing, bing—each one went off like a balloon when it bursts, and nothing remained of the dreadful Gallopus to worry about.

"Hurrah! Hurrah!" cried the Princess, clapping her hands. "The enchantment is broken. I am free again and you will not be eaten after all, Ting. I wonder what ever made him lose his heads that way?"

"Why," said Ting, taking her hand and liking her more than ever, "don't you know? Because if you don't, just come to the palace and look in a mirror and you will soon find out."

And when he said that the Princess tucked her arm in his and marched him off to the palace as quick as she could.

"Well, well, well," cried the King, jumping off his throne in excitement when he saw them coming in, "if this isn't the great surprise of my life."

Then he patted Ting on the back and called him the bravest boy in the land. "To think of conquering the twenty-headed Gallopus and rescuing the Inherited Princess on your eighth birthday," he said. "I never, never thought you would do it."

"I didn't do it," said Ting. "The Princess did it all herself."

And after the King had learned all that had happened he patted the Princess on the back also, and then he pinched her cheek.

"I don't wonder, my dear," he said, "that the Gallopus lost his heads. And I guess I'll announce that you and Ting did it between you, for it's all in the family, anyway."

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