George MacDonald

The Princess and the Goblin George MacDonald

"Very well, then every little girl is a princess, and there would be no need to say anythingabout it, except that she is always in danger of forgetting her rank, and behaving as if she hadgrown out of the mud. I have seen little princesses behave like the children of thieves and lyingbeggars, and that is why they need to be told they are princesses. And that is why, when I tell astory of this kind, I like to tell it about a princess. Then I can say better what I mean, because Ican then give her every beautiful thing I want her to have.""Please go on."There was once a little princess whose father was king over a great country full ofmountains and valleys. His palace was built upon one of the mountains, and was very grandand beautiful. The princess, whose name was Irene, was born there, but she was sent soonafter her birth, because her mother was not very strong, to be brought up by countrypeople in a large house, half castle, half farm-house, on the side of another mountain, abouthalfway between its base and its peak. The princess was a sweet little creature, and at the time my story begins was about eightyears old. I think, but she got older very fast. Her face was fair and pretty, with eyes liketwo bits of night-sky, each with a star dissolved in the blue. Those eyes you would havethought must have known they came from there, so often were they turned up in thatdirection. The ceiling of her nursery was blue, with stars in it, as like the sky as they couldmake it. But I doubt if ever she saw the real sky with the stars in it, for a reason which I hadbetter mention at once.