The Princess and Curdie

a

ieve. If they had not been able to trust Curdie himself, they would have refused to believe more than the half of what he reported, then they would have refused that h

icer than that, and she must allow it was more like roses than anything else she knew. His father could not see any difference upon his hands, but then it was night, he said, and their poor little lamp was not enou

er, 'try my hand, and see wha

ot insult my new gift by making pretence to try it. That would be mockery

and though,' said his mother. 'You are my so

his. And when he had it, he kept it,

h, 'your hand feels just l

the beautiful princess! Why, my child, you will make me fancy your fingers have grown very dull indeed, instead of sharp and delicate, if you talk

short nail. Your hand feels just and exactly, as near as I can recollect, and it's not more than

lay beneath what she took for its hyperbole. The praise even which one cannot accept is sweet fro

ke the truth it may seem. It wants no gift to tell what anybody's outside h

know it. This is how: when I forget myself looking at her as she goes about her work-and that happens often as I grow older-I fancy for a moment or two that I am a gentleman; and when I wake up from my little dream, it is only to feel the more strongly that I must do everything as a gentleman should. I will try to tell you what I mean, Curdie. If a gentleman-I mean a real gentleman, not a pretended one, of which sort they say there are a many above ground-if a real gentle

eel yours,' said Curdi

my head or my heart. I am what I am, and I hope growing better, and that's enough.

o make a fortune, and although they were sorry enough to lose him,

not know that he was going among ladies and gentlemen, and that as work was better than play, his workday clothes must on the whole be better than his playday Clothes; and as his father accepted the argument, his mother gave in. When he had eaten his breakfast, she took a pouch made of goatskin, with the long hair on it, filled it with bread and cheese, and hung it over his shoulder. Then his father gave him a stick he