Once upon a time there was a young Prince who was so well liked by everyone in the kingdom where he lived that they named him Prince Darling.

This boy’s father, the King, was a very good man, and his subjects loved and respected him for his justness and kindness. The King loved his son greatly, and he loved his subjects, too. He was very anxious to have his son grow up to be a splendid man, and a just ruler for his people. The King was no longer young, and he knew that it would not be many years before his son would be left without a father’s advice. He knew, too, that the boy would succeed to the throne, and would have to see that everyone in the kingdom was treated justly and kindly.

One day a strange thing happened. The King was out hunting, when suddenly a little white rabbit leaped into his arms. The rabbit seemed to think that in the King’s arms it would find protection from the dogs that were chasing it, and had nearly run it down. And the rabbit was right; for the King stroked the trembling creature gently, and said:

“The dogs shan’t get you now, poor bunny!” Then the King took the rabbit home, and saw that the best care was given it.

That night, after everyone else had gone to bed, the King sat alone thinking about Prince Darling. Suddenly a beautiful lady seemed to come into the room. She was dressed in pure white, and wore a wreath of white roses on her golden hair.

“You don’t recognize me, do you?” she asked in a lovely, clear voice. “I am the rabbit you rescued from the dogs in the forest this afternoon. The rabbit was really the Fairy Truth. I took the shape of a rabbit to see whether you were really as good as everyone said. Now I know you are, and I shall always be your friend. Isn’t there something you want, above everything else in the world, which I can give you to repay you for your goodness to me?”

The King was amazed by the lovely Fairy and her wonderful offer. He thought at once that if only he could win the friendship of the Fairy Truth for Prince Darling, all would be well. So he said:

“Good Fairy, above all things I should like to know that you would be my son’s friend. Will you?”

“Gladly. I will make him the richest or the handsomest or the most powerful Prince in the world. Which shall it be?” the Fairy inquired.

“I would not ask any of those things, good Fairy, but I would have him good, the best instead of the richest of princes. If he is good and his conscience does not trouble him, I am sure he will be happy. Riches and power and good looks, without goodness, cannot make him happy.”

“That is all true,” said the Fairy, “and I will do all I can to make Prince Darling good. He will have to do most of it himself, though. I can only advise him, praise him when he is good, and scold him when he is bad. But I will do all I can.”

Not long after this strange happening the King died, and Prince Darling became King in his father’s place. The Fairy Truth remembered her promise, and came to the palace with a present for Prince Darling.

“This little gold ring,” she said, as she slipped it on his finger, “is my gift to you. I promised your father that I would be your friend. This ring will help you to keep my friendship. When it pricks you, you will know you have done something mean or unkind. It will warn you to stop doing such things. If you stop, I will be your friend; if you keep on doing wicked things, I will become your enemy.”

Before Prince Darling could say a word the Fairy vanished.

The Prince was curious to know whether the ring really would do as the Fairy said. But he never felt a single prick from the ring. Then one day he was badly pricked. He came home from hunting in a horrid temper, and kicked his unoffending little dog, that was trying to be friendly, until it howled with pain.

“Really, Prince Darling, that is too bad of you.” The Fairy’s voice sounded quietly in his ear. “You lost your temper because things did not go just to suit you. Even if you are a prince, the world cannot always run just to suit your whims. What’s worse, you hurt a poor creature who loves you. I don’t think that’s being the sort of a prince your father would be proud of, do you?”

The Prince was greatly embarrassed, and thrust his hands deep into his pockets to make himself seem full-grown up—so he would not cry! He promised to be good forever after.

But he wasn’t, and the ring pricked him often. After a time he paid hardly any attention to the ring at all. Finally he made up his mind that a prince ought to be able to decide for himself what was right or wrong. Besides, the ring pricked so hard and so often that it made his finger bleed. So he threw it away entirely.

Just after this he met Celia, the loveliest girl he had ever seen. It seemed to him he could never be happy until he had made her his wife; and he lost no time in asking her to marry him.

“Sire, I cannot,” said the girl.

The Prince was indignant, for he thought any girl should be proud to have him offer to marry her and make her Queen.

“Sire,” Celia went on, “you are handsome and rich and powerful, I know; but the man I marry must be good.”

This speech made the Prince so angry that he ordered his men to take Celia off to the palace as a prisoner.

Now, the Prince had a foster-brother who was a very wicked man. When the Prince told him about Celia, he said:

“What! a peasant girl refuse to marry the Prince! How ridiculous! The whole kingdom would laugh if they knew about it.”

This speech hurt the Prince’s pride, and he decided to make Celia consent to marry him at any cost. He rushed off to find her. His men had given him the key to the cell where they had imprisoned her. But the cell was quite empty.

The Prince was terribly angry, and swore that he would put to death the person who had helped Celia to escape. It happened that this threat gave some of the Prince’s wicked friends the very chance they wanted to get rid of the Prince’s tutor, an old nobleman whom they all hated because he was good.

Soon these wicked men had everyone in the court whispering: “Yes, it was Suliman who helped Celia escape.” Some men even were found who swore that Suliman himself had told them about it. When the Prince heard it he was still more angry. To think that his old tutor could treat him so! He ordered his men to arrest the supposed offender, put him in chains, as if he were a murderer, and bring him to court.

No sooner was the order given than there was a tremendous roar of thunder. The ground was still shaking when the Fairy Truth appeared.

“Until now, Prince Darling,” the fairy said sternly, “I have been very gentle with you. You have been very wicked, but I have done no more than warn you that you were doing wrong and becoming the very sort of man your father, the good King, wanted you NOT to be. Now I must take stronger measures, for you have paid no attention to my warnings.

“Really you are more like the wild animals than a man and a prince. You roar with anger like a lion. You are greedy for fine food and clothes and a good time, as a wolf is greedy for its prey. You are untrue to your friends, like a treacherous snake. You even turn upon the kind tutor who was your father’s firmest friend, and who would like to help you, too, if you would let him. You are as disagreeable as an angry bull, that keeps everyone out of its neighborhood, because everyone knows it is not safe to go near.”

The Fairy’s voice now roared forth in terrible tones, which made Prince Darling shake from head to heel:

“Therefore, I condemn you to have a hideous body like your ugly character—part lion, part wolf, part snake, and part bull.”

The Prince put his hand to his head, because he felt as if he should weep at this awful sentence. He found his face covered with a lion’s shaggy beard; a bull’s horns had grown out of his skull. He looked at his feet: they were those of a wolf. His body was the long slimy body of a snake.

The palace had disappeared, and he stood beside a clear lake in a deep forest. He shuddered with horror when he saw his reflection in the lake. His horror turned to rage when he heard the Fairy Truth say:

“Your punishment has just begun. Your pride will be hurt still more when you fall into the hands of your own subjects. And that is what is going to happen to you.”

Just as the Fairy said the Prince fell into the hands of his subjects, and in a most humiliating way, for he was caught in a trap which had been set to catch bears. Thus he was captured alive and led into the chief city of the kingdom.

There was no mourning in the town because of the Prince’s death, by a thunderbolt, as they supposed. Instead, there was great rejoicing, for Suliman had been made King by the people, who were sick and tired of the way Prince Darling had misruled them.

“Long live King Suliman!” they shouted. “His rule will bring us peace and prosperity.”

In the middle of the public park sat King Suliman. Just as the Prince, in his ugly disguise came up, Suliman was saying:

“Prince Darling is not dead, as you suppose. I have accepted the crown only until he comes back, for the Fairy Truth says he may still return, a good and just man like his father. For myself, I want nothing more than to see Prince Darling come back a worthy ruler for this mighty kingdom.”

This speech made the Prince feel very much ashamed of himself, for it showed plainly that the Fairy was right, and that he himself had misjudged Suliman.

Meantime the Prince was put in the menagerie, and people pointed him out as a most strange beast, the only one of his sort ever found anywhere. The Prince was beginning to feel like his old, gentle self. He was even good to his keeper, although the keeper was anything but good to him.

One day a tiger broke through his cage and attacked the keeper. At first the Prince was pleased to see the keeper in danger of his life, and mused: “When he’s dead and out of the way I can easily escape.”

But the Prince’s punishment had not been in vain, for suddenly he began to think, “Well, the poor old keeper; after all I’m sorry for him!”

Then as if by magic the bars of the Prince’s cage seemed to melt away, and he rushed out to rescue the keeper who had treated him so badly. The man was more terrified than ever when he saw the huge monster loose. But imagine his amazement when the beast fell upon the tiger, instead of crushing his (the keeper’s) life out, as he had feared.

Naturally the keeper was filled with gratitude. The strange beast’s kindness made him feel ashamed when he remembered how badly he had treated the animal.

The keeper now tried to stroke the beast’s head, by way of gratitude, when to his amazement he found himself stroking, not a wild animal, but a gentle little dog.

The keeper picked up the dog in his arms and took him to the King, to whom he told the strange story of his rescue. The Queen liked the dog, and decided to keep him for a pet. Unluckily for Prince Darling, however, she took him to the court doctor, who decided that too much food would be very bad for the dog, and ordered that he be fed nothing but bread, and very little at that! So Prince Darling prized the small amount of bread he got very highly indeed.

Once Prince Darling trotted off with his little loaf of bread—all he would get to eat that day—to a brook some distance away. Strange to tell, the brook was gone, and in its place was a huge house. Prince Darling thought the persons who lived there must be fabulously rich, because the house was made of precious stones and gold, and the people were dressed in the most elegant and expensive clothes. He heard music, and saw people feasting and dancing.

Yet the people who came out of the house presented the most forlorn appearance—ragged, and sick, and half starved. Prince Darling saw a poor young girl, and his heart was filled with pity. She was eating grass and leaves, she was so hungry. Prince Darling was hungry himself, but he thought:

“I can’t be as hungry as that poor girl, and to-morrow I’ll have another loaf.” So he gave the bread to her, and she ate it eagerly.

Suddenly there was a great outcry, and the Prince, running in the direction whence the noise came, saw Celia being dragged against her will into this mysterious house. The poor little dog could do nothing to help her. Then he thought sadly: “I am very angry now with these terrible people who treat Celia so badly; but not long ago I was myself threatening to have her killed!”

And the little dog, feeling quite forlorn, put its tail between its legs, as dogs often do, and went off to watch the house where Celia was imprisoned.

An upper window was opened, and a girl threw out some food. The dog thought this was because the girl had a kind heart. But when it started to eat, the one to whom it had given the bread but a short time before cried out: “Stop! If you touch that you will die! That food came from the house of pleasure, and is deadly poison.”

So once again the Prince found that his good action had been rewarded. And the Fairy Truth, to show her approval, transformed the little dog into a lovely white dove.

The dove flew straight into the house of pleasure, searching for Celia. No sign of her could it find there, as she had escaped. Therefore it decided to fly and fly all around the world until it did get her.

One day it came to a desert island, where no living person could be seen, nor any green tree to light upon. It searched about, and after a time found a cavern, and in it was Celia, sharing a simple meal with an old hermit.

Prince Darling flew right up to Celia, lighted on her shoulder, and tried in all the ways a dove knows to show its affection for her. Celia in return stroked it gently, although she, of course, had no idea who it was. Indeed, Celia seemed delighted to have found a new friend, and said softly:

“I am glad you have come to me, and I will care for you and love you always.”

Celia did not expect the dove to understand what she said. The hermit understood, however, and asked her whether she really meant it.

“Ah! Celia,” Prince Darling exclaimed, “with my whole heart I hope you do mean it!” And the astonished Celia turned and saw Prince Darling himself standing before her.

“Celia will not stop loving you now, Prince Darling,” said Fairy Truth, who had been disguised as the hermit all this time. “She has loved you from the beginning, and now that you have started on the road to goodness I know she will gladly join her fate with yours.”

Then Celia and Prince Darling threw themselves at the Fairy’s feet, and thanked her a thousand times over for bringing them together again after all their trials.

“Come, my children,” said the Fairy, “if you had not helped me I could not have brought this to pass. And now, let’s go back to Prince Darling’s kingdom, for I know King Suliman is waiting eagerly for a chance to give back the throne.”

The Fairy had scarcely stopped speaking when they found themselves in the royal palace. King Suliman was overjoyed to see the Prince return, and gladly yielded the throne to him again.

When the Prince was crowned King for the second time he also put on again the little gold ring which he had thrown away so long before. He and Celia gave their whole hearts to the effort to govern the kingdom justly and kindly. You will know that they succeeded very well, when I tell you that the magic ring never again pricked Prince Darling’s finger.