ng kings and even distant ones were already sending envoys to
her father's court begging permission to offer their sons as suitors to
the Princess's hand. As he had no son of his own the Princess's father
was delighted that the day was fast approaching when he might have a
son-in-law, and long before even the name of any particular prince was
discussed the Princess's mother had planned the wedding down to its last
detail.

The Princess alone was uninterested.

"I'm not ready to get married yet," she'd say to her parents every day
when they'd begin telling her about the various princes who were anxious
to gain her favor. "Why such haste? I'm young and there's plenty of
time. Besides, just now I'm too busy with my embroidery to be bothered
with a crowd of young men."

With that, before the King could reprove her, the Princess would throw
her arms about his neck, kiss him under the corner of his mustache, and
go flying off to the tower-room where she had her embroidery frame.

Her mother, the Queen, was much upset by the Princess's attitude.

"In my youth," she said, "girls were not like this. We were brought up
to think that courtship and marriage were the most important events in
our lives. I don't know what's getting into the heads of the young girls
nowadays!"

But the King, who was still smiling from the tickling little kiss which
the Princess had planted under the corner of his mustache, always
answered:

"Tut! Tut! We needn't worry yet! Take my word for it when some
particular young man comes along she'll be interested fast enough!"

At this the Queen, ending the discussion every day with the same words,
would shake her head and declare:

"I tell you it isn't natural for a girl to be more interested in
embroidery than in a long line of handsome young suitors!"

The Princess was interested in her embroidery--there's no doubt about
that. She spent every moment she could in the tower-room, working and
singing. The tower was high up among the treetops. It was reached by
winding stairs so narrow and so many that no one any older than the
Princess would care to climb them. The Princess flew up them like a
bird, scarcely pausing for breath. At the top of the stairs was a
trap-door which was the only means of entrance into the tower-room. Once
in the tower-room with the bolt of the trap-door securely fastened, the
Princess was safe from interruption and could work away at her
embroidery to her heart's content. T