THE FLOWER PRINCESS - Four Short Fantasy Stories for Children

By Abbie Farwell Brown

A collection of four short fantasy stories, including: The Flower Princess, The Little Friend, The Mermaid's Child and The Ten Blowers.
There is a beautiful Princess named Fleurette, who loves flowers. She lives in a marble palace on a hill. Many princes come from near and wide and become enamoured with her beauty and seek her hand in marriage. But Fleurette tells each of the princes that if he wants to marry her he has to tell her what her favourite flower is.

She tells them “I have no mind to exchange hearts, save with him who can find mine, where it is hidden among my flowers. Guess me my favourite flower, dear Prince, and I am yours.” As yet, no prince has been successful in naming her favourite flower.

Princess Fleurette loves the flowers in her palace garden, so much so, that every morning before the palace has risen, she visits her garden. She greets each one affectionately and basks in their beauty as well as savours the perfume of her blooms. She takes good care of them, removing the weeds and dead-heads the withered flowers. Even though she has gardeners, she does whatever needs to be done. Once done, she returns to the palace for breakfast.

One morning while she is in the garden, a handsome youth, clad in green, named Joyeuse appears. He is a minstrel, a swordsman and herbalist.. Princess Fleurette is quite taken aback because of this intrusion into her personal space. Joyeuse has is unaware he is speaking to the Princess and thinks her to be one of the palace maidens.

The Princess has a liking for Joyeuse and gives him tasks to determine if he is authentic, and capable of performing the tasks he claims to be proficient in. When she pricked her finger on a rose thorn, she asked him how he will cure her, and he tells her what to put on her finger. The next day there is no trace that her finger was ever injured. She asks him to play music and he plays beautiful music which delights her no end. The next time they meet she requests he teach her how to play to prove his worth as a teacher, and once again he delivers. They are so engrossed in what they are doing that time passes and a gardener appears. The Princess flees and Joyeuse is arrested for trespassing.

The next morning he appeared before the court and realised the maiden was no ordinary maiden at all. Even though he isn’t a prince, Joyeuse takes the opportunity to ask for her hand in marriage. The Princess consults her advisers and they tell her that Joyeuse has to prove that is courageous. Being an expert swordsman, he easily does this without harming his opponent.

Overnight he analysed what the princess had said when telling suitors how they can win her hand in marriage, and in doing so he realises something that other suitors have not yet discovered and that that the morning glory has to be her favourite flower.
When asked by the Princess he announces what he believes the favourite flower to be. But, is he correct? Does he become a Prince or is he thrown out of the palace?

KEYWORDS/TAGS: The Flower Princess, Little Friend, Mermaid's Child, Ten Blowers, Folklore, fairy tale, myth, legend, fable, childrens story, storyteller, baby, beauty, blonde, Child, Christmas, dove, fair, family, Fleurette, flower, Fortemain, garden, Gil, heart, hill, Jan, Joyeuse, King, lost love, Mermaid, merry, morning mother, music, palace, Pierre, Prince, Princess, race, Sea-child, secret, snow, Stork, strange, throne, time, village, voice, words, Let Him Prove It, Princess Fleurette, Clap Her Hands, Joy, Help Comes, Blow For Our King,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abela Publishing
• Release date: Feb 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9788835379119

Book preview

The Flower Princess

By

Abbie Farewell Brown

Originally Published By

Houghton, Mifflin And Company,

Massachusetts

[1904]

Resurrected By

Abela Publishing, London

[2020]

Oh, give me for a little space

To see with childlike eyes

This curious world, our dwelling-place

Of wonder and surprise. . . .

The long, long road from Day to Night

Winds on through constant change,

Whereon one hazards with delight

Adventures new and strange;

The wonders of the earth and sky!

The magic of the sea!

The mysteries of beast and fly,

Of bird and flower and tree!

One feels the breath of holy things

Unseen along the road,

The whispering of angel wings,

The neighboring of Good.

And Beauty must be good and true,

One battles for her sake;

But Wickedness is foul to view,

So one cannot mistake. . . .

Ah, give me with the childlike sight

The simple tongue and clear

Wherewith to read the vision right

Unto a childish ear.

The Flower Princess

Typographical arrangement of this edition

© Abela Publishing 2020

This book may not be reproduced in its current format in any manner in any media, or transmitted by any means whatsoever, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, or mechanical ( including photocopy, file or video recording, internet web sites, blogs, wikis, or any other information storage and retrieval system) except as permitted by law without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Abela Publishing,

London

United Kingdom

2020

ISBN-13: 978-X-XXXXXX-XX-X

email:

[e-mail]

Website

www.AbelaPublishing.com

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments are due the publishers of The Churchman for permission to reprint The Flower Princess and The Little Friend; also to the Brown Book of Boston for permission to use The Ten Blowers, which first appeared in that magazine.

Contents

The Flower Princess

The Little Friend

The Mermaid's Child

The Ten Blowers

List of Illustrations

Let him prove it

The Princess Fleurette

Until she clapped her hands for joy

Until help comes

You will bring him back to me?

One more blow for our King

The Flower Princess

NCE upon a time there was a beautiful Princess named Fleurette, who lived in a white marble palace on the top of a high hill. The Princess Fleurette was very fond of flowers, and all around the palace, from the very gates thereof, a fair garden, full of all kinds of wonderful plants, sloped down to the foot of the hill, where it was snugly inclosed with a high marble wall. Thus the hill was like a great nosegay rising up in the midst of the land, sending out sweet odors to perfume the air for miles, bright with color in the sunshine, and musical with the chorus of birds and the hum of millions of bees.

One part of the garden was laid out in walks and avenues, with little vine-clad bowers here and there, where the Princess could sit and read, or lie and dream. There were fountains and statues among the trees, and everything grand and stately to make a garden beautiful. Another part of the garden was left wild and tangled, like a forest. Here all the shyest flowers grew in their own wild way; and here ran a little brook, gurgling over the pebbles in a race to the foot of the hill. There never was seen a more complete and beautiful garden than this of the Princess Fleurette.

Now the fame of the Princess's beauty, like the fragrance of her garden, had been wafted a long way, and many persons came to prove it. A continual procession of princes from lands near and far traveled the long road that wound from the foot of the hill up and up and up to the entrance of the palace. They came upon their noble steeds, with gold and jeweled harness most gorgeous to see, riding curiously up amid the flowers, whose perfume filled their hearts with happiness and hope. The further they rode the more they longed to tarry forever in this fair place. And when each one at last dismounted at the palace gate, and, going into the great hall, saw the Princess herself, more fair than any flower, sitting on her golden throne, he invariably fell upon his knees without delay, and begged her to let him be her very ownest Prince.

But the Princess always smiled mischievously and shook her head, saying,—

I have no mind to exchange hearts, save with him who can find mine, where it is hidden among my flowers. Guess me my favorite flower, dear Prince, and I am yours.

This she said to every prince in turn. She did not greatly care to have any prince for her very ownest own, for she was happy enough among her flowers without one. But the Prince, whoever he might be, when he heard her strange words, would go out eagerly into the garden and wander, wander long among the flowers, searching to find the sweetest and most beautiful, which must be his lady's favorite. And, of course, he selected his own favorite, whatever that was. It might be that he would choose a great, wonderful rose. At the proper time he would kneel and present it to the Princess, saying confidently,—

O fair Princess, surely I have found the flower of your heart. See the beautiful rose! Give it then to me to wear always, as your very ownest Prince.

But the Princess, glancing at the rose, would shake her head and say,—

Nay! I love the roses, too. But my heart is not there, O Prince. You are not to be my lord, or you would have chosen better.

Then she would retire into her chamber, to be no more seen while that Prince remained in the palace. Presently he would depart, riding sorrowfully down the hill on his gorgeous steed, amid the laughing flowers. And the Princess would be left to enjoy her garden in peace until the next prince should arrive.

It might be that this one would guess the glorious nodding poppy to be his lady's choice. But he would be no nearer than the other. A later comer would perhaps choose a gay tulip; another a fair and quiet lily; still another earnest soul would select the passion-flower, noble and mysterious. But at all of these the Princess shook her head and denied them. There had never yet come a prince to the hill who found her heart's true flower. And the Princess lived on among