lived deep, deep in a great forest which
seemed to end nowhere.

They gave the swineherd some money, and some clothes for Fairyfoot, and
told him, that if he would take care of the child, they would send money
and clothes every year. As for themselves, they only wished to be sure of
never seeing Fairyfoot again.

This pleased the swineherd well enough. He was poor, and he had a wife
and ten children, and hundreds of swine to take care of, and he knew he
could use the little Prince's money and clothes for his own family, and
no one would find it out. So he let his wife take the little fellow, and
as soon as the King's messengers had gone, the woman took the royal
clothes off the Prince and put on him a coarse little nightgown, and gave
all his things to her own children. But the baby Prince did not seem to
mind that--he did not seem to mind anything, even though he had no name
but Prince Fairyfoot, which had been given him in contempt by the
disgusted courtiers. He grew prettier and prettier every day, and long
before the time when other children begin to walk, he could run about on
his fairy feet.

The swineherd and his wife did not like him at all; in fact, they
disliked him because he was so much prettier and so much brighter than
their own clumsy children. And the children did not like him, because
they were ill natured and only liked themselves.

So as he grew older year by year, the poor little Prince was more and
more lonely. He had no one to play with, and was obliged to be always
by himself. He dressed only in the coarsest and roughest clothes; he
seldom had enough to eat, and he slept on straw in a loft under the
roof of the swineherd's hut. But all this did not prevent his being
strong and rosy and active. He was as fleet as the wind, and he had a
voice as sweet as a bird's; he had lovely sparkling eyes, and bright
golden hair; and he had so kind a heart that he would not have done a
wrong or cruel thing for the world. As soon as he was big enough, the
swineherd made him go out into the forest every day to take care of the
swine. He was obliged to keep them together in one place, and if any of
them ran away into the forest, Prince Fairyfoot was beaten. And as the
swine were very wild and unruly, he was very often beaten, because it
was almost impossible to keep them from wandering off; and when they
ran away, they ran so fast, and through places so tangled, that it was
almost impossible to follow them.