ns. The eldest son was
a very thoughtful youth. He always had a reason for everything he did,
and sometimes he would say things like "Economically it is to the
advantage of the State that----" or "The civic interests of the
community demand that----" before doing something specially horrid. He
didn't want to be unkind to anybody, but he took what he called a "large
view" of things; and if you happened to ask for a third help of
plum-pudding he took the large view that you would be sorry about it
next morning--and so you didn't have your plum-pudding. He was called
Prince Proper.

The second son was a very wise youth. You couldn't catch him anyhow. If
you asked him whether he knew the story of the three wells, or "Why does
a chicken cross the road?" or anything really amusing like that, he
would always say, "Oh, I heard that _years_ ago!"--and whenever you
began "Adam and Eve and Pinchme" he would pinch you at once without
waiting like a gentleman until you had got to the end of the verse. He
was called Prince Clever.

And the third son was just wonderfully beautiful. He had the most
marvellously pink cheeks and long golden hair that you have ever seen. I
don't much care for that style myself, but in the country in which he
lived it was admired more than I can tell you. He was called Prince
Goldenlocks. I'll give you three guesses why.

Now the King had reigned a long time, so long that he was tired of being
king, and he often used to wonder which of his sons ought to succeed
him. Of course, nowadays they never wonder, and the eldest son becomes
king at once, and quite right too; but in those days it was generally
left to the sons to prove which among themselves was the most worthy.
Sometimes they would all be sent out to find the magic Dragon's Tooth,
and only one would come back alive, which would save a lot of trouble;
or else, after a lot of discussion, they would be told to go and find
beautiful Princesses for themselves, and the one which brought back the
most beautiful Princess--but very often that would lead to another
discussion. The best way of all was to call in a Fairy to help. A Fairy
has all sorts of tricks for finding out about you, and her favourite
plan is to pretend to be something else and see what you do.

So the King called in a Fairy and said, "To-morrow I am sending out my
three sons into the world to seek their fortune. I want you to test them
for me and find out which is the most fitted to su