8 The Wild Swans Dog Stories

CHAPTER 8 The Wild Swans Far away, in a land where swallows fly in winter, lived a king who had eleven sons and one daughter, named Eliza. The eleven brothers were princes. Each prince went to school with a star on his chest and a sword at his side. They wrote with diamond pencils on golden slates. They learned their lessons quickly and read quite easily, as princes are likely to do. While the princes were at school, Princess Eliza sat on a little glass stool and studied a

book of pictures. The book was so precious, it cost as much as a half a kingdom. These were happy days for the royal family. But one day, the king married a wicked queen. She did not love the king's children at all. During the wedding party, the wicked queen made sure that everyone else in the land had plenty of cakes and apples. But when she turned to the king's children, she gave them tiny bowls filled with sand and told them to pretend it was cake. One week after the wedding, the wicked queen sent Princess Eliza to live with a peasant and his wife. She told the king many lies about the young princes. The king believed her and no longer cared for his sons. The princes tried to convince their father that the wicked queen had enchanted him. But the king would not listen to them. Then

the wicked queen put a curse on the eleven handsome princes. "Go out into the world and leave us alone," she told them. "Fly like great birds that have no voice and forever roam the skies. You will be princes no longer!" Although the wicked queen's plan was to turn them into ugly birds of prey, her magic didn't work. Instead the princes turned into eleven beautiful wild swans. All at once they flew through the windows of the palace, over the kingdom, to the forest beyond. They hovered over the peasant cottage where their sister, Princess Eliza, had been sent. She did not see them. They had no voices so they could not speak to her and tell her of the wicked queen's curse. So they flew far away and took shelter in a cave in a thick, dark wood. They were far away from their kingdom and from the wicked queen.

Princess Eliza spent four long years in the peasant cottage. She had no toys and no friends. She had no one to read her stories and tuck her in at night, as her brothers had always done. She had no one to give her kisses and hugs, the way her brothers had. One day passed like another, until she turned fifteen. The king became curious and asked to see his daughter, which greatly upset the wicked queen. But the king insisted, and Eliza was brought to the palace at once. The wicked queen was distressed at the sight of Eliza's beauty and goodness. She was sick at heart to think that the king would want Eliza to come back to the palace. So the wicked queen came up with an evil plan. She would use her magic to disguise Eliza so the king would not recognize her. The wicked queen conjured up three toads to do her evil chore. She kissed the toads and put a spell on each one.

"Now, my lovely, here's what you must do," the wicked queen told the first toad. "Sit on Princess Eliza's head so that she may become as stupid as you are." The wicked queen said to the second toad, "Sit on Eliza's fair cheek so that she may become as ugly as you. Then her father will not recognize her and will turn her away." To the third toad, the wicked queen whispered, "Rest on her heart so she will become evil. Then her father will not love her." When Eliza returned for her first night back at the palace, the wicked queen placed all three toads in her bath. She told the princess to clean up and get ready for bed. "Your father will want to see you fresh and bright tomorrow morning," the wicked queen said. As Eliza lowered herself into the bath, she

did not notice the ugly toads. Minutes later, when she rose from her bath, she noticed three red poppies floating in the tub. The toads had been turned into flowers. Princess Eliza was too good and innocent for the wicked queen's witchcraft to have any effect on her at all! She went to sleep, as beautiful and kind as ever. The wicked queen was furious. She had to do something quickly. While Eliza slept, the wicked queen rubbed walnut juice all over her until she was quite brown. Then she tangled Eliza's beautiful hair and smeared it with disgusting ointment. "Your father will never recognize you now, Princess," the wicked queen chuckled to herself. The next day, the king called for his daughter. Eliza politely stood before her father and bowed.