FullReads

The prince’s favorite plaything was a ball which was like no other ball that had ever been made. It was woven of magic stuff as bright as the sunlight, as sparkling as the starlight, and as golden as the moon at harvest time. And when the little prince threw it into the air, or bounced it on the floor or turned it in his hands it rang like a chime of silver bells.

The sick child laughed to hear it, and held out his hands for it, and the prince let him hold it, which pleased the grandmother as much as the child.

But pleased though she was she would not sell the rosemary. She had brought it from the home where she had lived when her little grandson’s father was a boy, she said, and she hoped to keep it till she died. So the prince and his servants had to go home without it.

No sooner had they gone than the sick child began to talk of the wonderfull ball.

“If I had such a ball to hold in my hand,” he said, “I should be contented all the day.”

“You may as well wish for the moon in the sky,” said his grandmother; but she thought of what he said, and in the evening when he was asleep she put her shawl around her, and taking the jar of rosemary with her she hastened to the king’s palace.

When she got there the servants asked her errand but she would answer nothing till they had taken her to the little prince.

“Silver and gold would not buy the rosemary,” she said when she saw him; “but if you will give me your golden ball for my little grandchild you may have the plant.”

“But my ball is the most wonderful ball that was ever made!” cried the little prince; “and it is my favorite plaything. I would not give it away for anything.”

And so the old woman had to go home with her jar of rosemary under her shawl.

The next day was the day before Christmas and there was a great stir and bustle in the palace. The queen’s physician had said that she might sit up to see the Christmas Tree that night, and have her presents with the rest of the family; and every one was running to and fro to get things in readiness for her.

The queen had so many presents, and very fine they were, too, that the Christmas Tree could not hold them all, so they were put on a table before the throne and wreathed around with holly and with pine. The little prince went in with his nurse to see them, and to put his gift, which was a jewel, among them.

“She wanted a jar of rosemary,” he said as he looked at the glittering heap.

“She will never think of it again when she sees these things. You may be sure of that,” said the nurse.

But the little prince was not sure. He thought of it himself many times that day, and once, when he was playing with his ball, he said to the nurse:

“If I had a rosemary plant I’d be willing to sell it for a purse full of gold. Wouldn’t you?”

“Indeed, yes,” said the nurse; “and so would any one else in his right senses. You may be sure of that.”

The little boy was not satisfied, though, and presently when he had put his ball up and stood at the window watching the snow which had come to whiten the earth for Christ’s birthday, he said to the nurse:

“I wish it were spring. It is easy to get rosemary then, is it not?”

“Your little highness is like the king’s parrot that knows but one word with your rosemary, rosemary, rosemary,” said the nurse who was a little out of patience by that time. “Her majesty, the queen, only asked for it to please you. You may be sure of that.”

But the little prince was not sure; and when the nurse had gone to her supper and he was left by chance for a moment alone, he put on his coat of fur, and taking the ball with him he slipped away from the palace, and hastened toward the old woman’s house.

He had never been out at night by himself before, and he might have felt a little afraid had it not been for the friendly stars that twinkled in the sky above him.

“We will show you the way,” they seemed to say; and he trudged on bravely in their light, till, by and by, he came to the house and knocked at the door.

Now the little sick child had been talking of the wonderful ball all the evening. “Did you see how it shone, grandmother? And did you hear how the little bells rang?” he said; and it was just then that the little prince knocked at the door.

The old woman made haste to answer the knock and when she saw the prince she was too astonished to speak.

“Here is the ball,” he cried, putting it into her hands. “Please give me the rosemary for my mother.”

And so it happened that when the queen sat down before her great table of gifts the first thing she spied was a jar of sweet rosemary like that which had bloomed in her mother’s window when she was a little girl.

“I should rather have it than all the other gifts in the world,” she said; and she took the little prince in her arms and kissed him.