Sleeping Beauty
ONCE upon a time, there was a King
and Queen. And when their baby daughter was born they were so happy they
decided to have a big party. They invited all their family, all their friends
and all the fairies in the land. Now there were 13 fairies altogether but
the king but queen only invited 12. They forgot about the 13th. And that
was something they should not have done.
Well, it was a splendid party! There
were silver dishes piled high with delicious food and golden plates at
every place. And when everyone had finished eating, the fairies gathered
around the baby's cradle and they each made a magic wish. The princess
shall be beautiful said the first. And happy, said the second. And kind,
said the third. And so they went on. The princess was to be brave, and
clever and truthful. She was to have a sweet singing voice and light dancing
feet
And, then, just as the twelfth fairy
was about to make her wish, in came the thirteenth. She was furious, because
she had not been invited to the party. Here is my wish, she said. "When
the princess is 16 years old, she will prick her finger on a spindle and
she will die." And with that, the thirteenth fairy vanished.
Then the 12th fairy said, "I cannot
change all of the wicked fairies powerful magic." So the princess will
prick her finger but she will not die! She slept for a hundred years. The
king and queen thanked the fairy for her kindness but they were not happy.
They did not want their daughter to sleep for a hundred years. So they
ordered that every spinning wheel and spindle in the land must be chopped
up and burnt. Then they thought that the princess was safe.
The years passed and the princess
grew up. She was very beautiful and clever at lots of different things.
She was, in fact, everything the fairies had wished her to be. On her sixteenth
birthday, the princess was exploring the castle when she came to a little
room at the top of a tall tower. And in that room was an old woman sitting
by a spinning wheel. "What are you doing?" asked the princess?"
"I am spinning," said the old woman,
who was really the wicked thirteenth fairy, "would you like to try?"
"Oh yes," said the princess, and she
sat down by the spinning wheel. But as soon as she touched the spindle,
the sharp point pricked her finger and she fell asleep.
And the old woman vanished. At that
same moment, the king and the queen, the servants, the cats and the dogs
all fell asleep! Even the fire stopped burning and the roasting meat stopped
sizzling. Everything slept.
Then a hedge of wild roses grew up
around the castle. It grew and it grew until the castle was hidden.
One hundred years passed and then
a prince came riding by and saw the top of the tower rising up above the
hedge of roses. How strange, he said, I never knew there was a castle here!
He jumped off his horse and lifted
his sword to cut away the hedge. But as soon as the sword touched the branch,
a path opened up in front of him. So prince walked freely through the hedge.
He entered castle, and walked from room to room. Imagine his surprise,
everyone and everything was fast asleep.
At last he entered a little room at
the end of a tall tower and he saw the sleeping princess. She was so very
beautiful that he bent down and kissed her. Then the spell was broken and
the princess opened her eyes.
At the same moment, everyone and everything
in the castle awoke! The king yawned, the queen blinked, the cats had a
good stretch and the dogs wagged their tails.
The servants began to work, the fire
began to flame, and the roasting meat began to sizzle. A hundred years
had not changed anyone or anything.
And what happened next? Why the beautiful
princess married the prince, who had woken her from such a long deep sleep.
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