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NOVEMBER, 1893.)
FOLKLORE IN SALSETTE; No. 17.
309
About this time it happened that the king of a neighbouring country had an only son, whom the father desired to get married, but the prince said that he wished to select his own wife. For this purpose he told the king to get up a dance and to invite to it all the neighbour. ing princesses, as well as other big folk. The king, therefore, appointed an evening for the dance, and hundreds of princesses and the daughters of nobles were invited.
Milliners were at once called into requisition, and the girls vied with each other in choosing out dresses and slippers for the occasion. Our queen, too, got a very nice dress for her daughter, also a beautiful pair of slippers. The day appointed for the dance was fast approaching, and all the girls were anxiously waiting to go to it, and were impatient to know who would be selected by the price for his wife. This was, however, a cause of great misery to our princess, for she thought to herself:
"All the girls will soon go to the dance, while I must sit at home. Oh that my mother were living! Would she not get me a new dress to enable me to go too ? Even, though my mother was dead, my father would have done everything for me, but he takes no notice of me now, and it will be useless for me to speak to him, for has he not warned me that, should anything go wrong, I must not complain, and also that he will pay no heed to what I may say or do ? Corsed be the hour when l insisted upon and persuaded my father to marry a second time!"
Thus she thought, and burst into sobs and cries, and from her eyes ran & stream of tears. While the princess was in this mood, her godmother, who had been dead for some years, appeared to her, and asked her what was the matter with her, and what she wanted. The princess told her of her misfortunes since her mother's death, how she was ill-treated by her step-mother, and every thing else that had occurred. She then told her that she wanted a dress and a pair of slippers to go to a dance, which a neighbouring king had got up to enable his son to select a wife.
"Oh! is that all P" said the princess' godmother. "Do not fret about it: make yourself easy. You will have every thing you want in time."
Thus she said and disappeared.
In due time the day of the dance came, and hundreds of girls, each dressed in her best, with bright and variegated coloured slippers, could be seen making their way to the palace of the king who had given the dance. The queen also sent her daughter handsomely dressed, thinking perhaps the prince might take a liking to her. At the appointed time dancing commenced, and the prince was seen dancing with several girls alternately. Our princess, who had seen all the girls going, and not yet having received the dress her godmother had promised, thought the vision was merely a dream, and again burst into tears, when, she immediately saw a very handsome dress and a pair of golden slippers. Having dressed herself hastily she entered the king's Palace, and went into the dancing hall, when every body's attention was at once rivetted on her dancing ceased for a short time, and all admired the very beautiful dress, and the more beautiful features of the new-comer. All were at a loss to know who the stranger was. Even her step-mother and sister did not recognise her. In a little while dancing commenced with renewed vigour, and the prince, who was quite enamoured of the priacess, danced with no one save her. The merriment continued till the small hours of the morning, when all the guests left one by one. The princess, whom the prince tried to stop, made her escape and left before every body, and going home resumed her usual dress, which was not much better than rags.
Soon all the guests were gone and day dawned, and the king asked his son if he had made his choice. The prince said he bad, but that unfortunately he could not tell her name, nor did he even know whence she came, and that he was, therefore, very unhappy. The prince now asked the king to give another dance, when, he said, he would take more care in making a
