KIDS
ONLY
O
TELL ME A STORY
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014
Gypsy queen
A Spanish tale, adapted by Amy Friedman and illustrated by Meredith Johnson
nce upon a time, a prince told his
parents he must marry the most
beautiful woman in the world.
He would travel the world to find her.
The prince rode over mountains,
across valleys, through villages and cities
and towns. One day, he came to a fountain, and there he stopped to take a drink.
As he bent over, he saw three oranges reflected in the water. He turned and looked
up to find an orange tree. Three exquisite
oranges hung from the lowest branch.
These looked so delicious that the
prince could not resist, and he reached
up and plucked all three.
He cut the first one in half, and as he
did, a beautiful young woman appeared
before him. He gasped at the sight.
“Give me some bread,” she said.
“I have no bread,” the prince answered.
She shook her head. “Then I shall return to my orange,” and she vanished. In
his hand, the prince held the orange —
whole again.
Naturally, he quickly cut into the second orange. A second young woman
stepped from inside. She was even lovelier than the first.
“Give me some bread,” she said.
Again the prince was nearly breathless
with wonder, but he shook his head and
said, “I have no bread.”
“Then I shall return to my orange,” the
woman said, and so she did.
The prince began to think. He decided
that he must find some bread in case a
third beauty appeared. Just as he was
plotting where to go to find some, a gypsy passed by pulling a cart overflowing
with pots and pans, canvas and clothes,
bottles and baskets. The prince called
out, “Good day, my friend.”
“Good day to you,” replied the gypsy.
“Do you have any bread in your cart?”
asked the prince. “If you do, I will pay
you handsomely for some.” The gypsy smiled. “Of course,” and he handed
over a sweet polvoron, and the prince
paid him generously with a
pouch full of gold coins.
Then the prince sliced open
the third orange. To his delight
— and to the gypsy’s astonishment — the most beautiful
woman in the world stepped
out from inside. “Give me
some bread,” she said.
The prince quickly handed over the
polvoron, and when he did, the woman
said, “Thank you. Now you may ask of me
anything you wish.”
“Marry me,” the prince said. “Marry me
and I shall be the happiest man on earth.”
Naturally, the woman agreed. But
when the prince noticed that her garments were tattered and worn, he knew
he must find her a proper dress to wear
to come to the palace. “Wait here while I
procure a gown for you,” he said.
The prince rode off, leaving the woman
behind with the gypsy.
All this time, the gypsy’s daughter had
been asleep inside the cart, under a mountain of blankets. Just at that moment the
young woman awoke, and when she saw
the prince riding away, she became curious.
“Who was that?” she asked her father.
The man told his daughter everything
that had happened. He showed her the
bag of gold. “Imagine how much more
there is than that,” she muttered to herself. With that, the gypsy’s daughter decided she must marry the prince. Secretly, she devised a plot. She turned to the
young woman standing by the orange and
said, “Let me comb your hair so you will be
even more beautiful when the prince returns. A bride must always look her best.”
The young woman agreed.
As the gypsy’s daughter combed the
woman’s hair, she stuck a pin in the woman’s head and muttered a curse. The
beautiful woman transformed into a dove.
The gypsy’s daughter then hurriedly
dressed in the other woman’s clothes and
took her place standing beside the orange.
© UNIVERSAL UCLICK, AMY FRIEDMAN & MEREDITH JOHNSON
When the prince returned
and saw this woman, he
was surprised to see she
looked somewhat different.
“I think the sun must have
burned your skin,” he said.
“Let us hurry to the palace
where you will be protected
and loved.”
The prince took the woman to the palace, and there he married her.
But the new princess was cruel and
greedy, and the prince’s life was not happy.
One year after the wedding, a dove
landed in the royal garden, where the
gardener was turning over the soil to protect the seeds for the coming winter.
“How are the princess and his wife?”
the dove asked the gardener.
“He often weeps,” said the gardener. “I
don’t imagine he is very happy.”
The dove flew away, but she returned
the next day and the next. Each day she
asked about the prince.
At last, the gardener told the prince
about the dove, and when the prince heard
the story, he knew he must meet this dove.
“Do whatever you can to catch the
bird,” he demanded.
The next day, when the dove appeared,
the gardener captured her and carried her
to the prince. The moment he saw the
creature, the prince was fascinated by it.
He began to pet the dove, and as he did,
he felt a pin in its head. He carefully removed it, and when he did, the dove transformed at once into the beautiful woman
who’d appeared after he cut the orange.
She told the prince all that had happened.
When the prince heard the tale, he ordered his conniving wife expelled from
the palace. “She cast a spell on my beloved and she must pay.”
Soon after, the prince’s scorned wife
was sent away, left to forever wander the
land aimlessly. The prince married the
woman he’d first fallen in love with, and
they lived happily ever after.