PRINCE PRIGIO

CHAPTER I.--_How the Fairies were not Invited to Court_

ONCE upon a time there reigned in Pantouflia a king and a queen. With
almost everything else to make them happy, they wanted one thing: they
had no children. This vexed the king even more than the queen, who was
very clever and learned, and who had hated dolls when she was a child.
However, she too, in spite of all the books she read and all the
pictures she painted, would have been glad enough to be the mother of
a little prince. The king was anxious to consult the fairies, but the
queen would not hear of such a thing. She did not believe in fairies:
she said that they had never existed; and that she maintained, though
_The History of the Royal Family_ was full of chapters about nothing
else.