a
daughter--as lovely a little princess as ever cried.

The day drew near when the infant must be christened. The king wrote
all the invitations with his own hand. Of course somebody was
forgotten. Now it does not generally matter if somebody is forgotten,
only you must mind who. Unfortunately, the king forgot without
intending to forget; and so the chance fell upon the Princess
Makemnoit, which was awkward. For the princess was the king's own
sister; and he ought not to have forgotten her. But she had made
herself so disagreeable to the old king, their father, that he had
forgotten her in making his will; and so it was no wonder that her
brother forgot her in writing his invitations. But poor relations
don't do anything to keep you in mind of them. Why don't they? The
king could not see into the garret she lived in, could he?

She was a sour, spiteful creature. The wrinkles of contempt crossed
the wrinkles of peevishness, and made her face as full of wrinkles as a
pat of butter. If ever a king could be justified in forgetting
anybody, this king was justified in forgetting his sister, even at a
christening. She looked very odd, too. Her forehead was as large as
all the rest of her face, and projected over it like a precipice. When
she was angry, her little eyes flashed blue. When she hated anybody,
they shone yellow and green. What they looked like when she loved
anybody, I do not know; for I never heard of her loving anybody but
herself, and I do not think she could have managed that if she had not
somehow got used to herself. But what made it highly imprudent in the
king to forget her was that she was awfully clever. In fact, she was a
witch; and when she bewitched anybody, he very soon had enough of it;
for she beat all the wicked fairies in wickedness, and all the clever
ones in cleverness. She despised all the modes we read of in history,
in which offended fairies and witches have taken their revenges; and
therefore, after waiting and waiting in vain for an invitation, she
made up her mind at last to go without one, and make the whole family
miserable, like a princess as she was.

So she put on her best gown, went to the palace, was kindly received by
the happy monarch, who forgot that he had forgotten her, and took her
place in the procession to the royal chapel. When they were all
gathered about the font, she contrived to get next to it, and throw
something into the water; after which she m