Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small][merged small]

It was the most beautiful land imaginable, interested in the invention, as the King kept her for the sky was blue with cloudlets sprinkled here and there in snowy heaps; and the flowers never faded, but were always fresh, bright, and fragrant.

It seemed only natural, therefore, that when a wee princess was born to the good King, she should resemble a sweet tiny flower, with her sunny brown hair and great blue eyes softly fringed with long, dark lashes. They called her Pansy, and from her birth the dear little Princess gave no one any trouble, nor caused any disturbance in the royal house.

Now her father's kingdom was a large one, and difficult to manage; for in those days the age had come when people began to make inventions, bringing them to the King to earn money and make themselves famous; but their ruler was not always willing to hear them and grant requests made to him by foolish people who knew not how to invent something which would be of use in the world. For one particular invention, however, the King paid a large sum, and that one was a pipe. Now the King began to like smoking, and the rest of his subjects quickly following his example, the country soon embraced this new diversion.

with him most of the time, and Pansy liked nothing better than to be allowed to enter his private study, there to examine with curiosity the pipes which fairly lined its walls,-pipes of wood and clay, and others with amber mouthpieces, or silver and gold handles; however, her own little play pipe pleased our Princess best of all. It was a very plain little one of clay, with only the moulded figure of a fairy on the bowl, but it was so clean and white and pretty that she had begged her father to let her keep it.

One day the Princess was being washed, for even princesses can get dirty after a morning's romp, and, after her little hands had been dried, she dabbled the pipe around in the soapy water. "I can smoke like daddy," cried the child, laughing gaily as she raised the pipe to her lips and blew through the hollow handle. To her surprise there came from the mouth of the bowl a beautiful filmy ball, through which gleamed colored lights, and showed a distinct reflection of the room, the window, the garden beyond, and the wondering face of little Pansy, as she blew and blew; while the bubble grew larger and larger, so soft and quivering with the air's The little Princess was, of course, very much slightest motion, so beautifully round and trans

[merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed]

and floating gently in the air before her, sud- the royal nurse prepared some soapy water,

denly vanished away.

Never before had Pansy or her attendants seen a ball of water filled with air. The little Princess, in her disappointment at its loss, began to weep loudly. Her sobs, which no one could stop, brought the King from his council-cham

dipped in the fairy pipe, and blew once more. Again that soft, enchanting nothing appeared, and, waving to and fro again vanished as a puff of wind came through the open casement from the balmy air outside. Before the little Princess had time to cry out once more, the King fol

700

THE INVENTION OF SOAP BUBBLES.

lowed the maid's example to please his little daughter, and Pansy, finding it as easy to blow her bubbles as to weep over their strange disappearance, dried her eyes and, pushing back her curls, ran out into the garden with her dear plaything. For hours she blew and tossed the bubbles up into the sunlit air, delighting in their graceful, swaying motions, and their bright colors, as they reflected grass and flowers in beautiful harmony.

Tired, as evening came on, our little Princess ordered her supper to be spread in a rustic summer-house near by; and, lying down to wait for the maid's return, she rested her head on her small, plump arms, and gazed up at the blue sky above, then lighted with faint sunset colors of the west. She was tired out with the day's playing, and her new amusement; and, laying her precious pipe beside her on the grass, the little Princess fell asleep. Softly rustled the branches near, swaying in the light wind, and all was quiet, peaceful, and still, as the Princess slept on.

When she awoke it was no longer evening, and the bright sun shone over a beautiful meadow at the edge of a small wood. Pansy rubbed her eyes and smiled, sitting up to look about and admire the silvery streamlet running along not far off. Her next thought was for the pipe, and, turning, she beheld it lying on the grass, and still full of soapy water as she had laid it down. Thinking of her new discovery, Pansy raised it to her lips, and, as she blew gently, it seemed to the child that of all her bubbles this was the brightest, biggest, and best. All at once the bubble shook violently, till it almost broke, and through the mouth of the pipe appeared a tiny thread of gray, almost like a twig. It grew larger and formed itself into a slender figure clad in pink and silvery draperies that fell in graceful folds about the tiny form. The Princess, gazing in her bewilderment, caught her breath in a little gasp. It looked so like the fairy of the pipe which she had always admired and caressed so much. Could it be?

And then she realized that that other wee form had gone, vanished from the outside, and reappeared in the swaying bubble. It was the fairy! She waved her arms above her head as if imploring release, and Pansy, drawing the pipe, tossed the bubble off into the air. As she

[JUNE,

watched it, amazed and almost frightened, it rose slowly, swung aloft a moment, and then broke into glittering drops of spray, while the lovely fairy, spreading her silvery wings, flew straight to Pansy's side. As the shining drops of water struck the green grass of the meadow, there sprang up a hundred tiny forms like the other fairy, and joining hands they tripped to and fro before the Princess, who could not talk for her delight.

Then the dainty Queen by the child's side spoke: "Little daughter of the King, thou art not, as I see thou dost think, in the true fairyland. This country is a land of soap-bubbles. Every bubble, though it seem to fall and vanish, is drawn up into the clouds and there preserved with every tint it first showed thee in the Palace Garden. Wilt come with me, Pansy, and see those which for thy pleasure we have already captured in our Palace of the Sky?"

As the child nodded, the Queen picked a tiny bluebell growing near, and, on her waving it, it gave forth a gay, ringing sound, at which a flock of butterflies flew up to them, and lit upon the ground. Lifting the Princess-who had grown very tiny while the fairy was talking-to the back of a gaudy black and yellow creature, the Queen herself mounted its mate, and away they flew, up, up into the air.

"Dear Fairy," cried Pansy, in her sweet little voice," where are you taking me to? Where is your palace and the bubbles you have promised that I shall see ?"

"Look ahead of thee at that bank of snowwhite clouds, my Princess," called back the Queen, pointing before her with the bluebell she still held. "Doth it not resemble, as we draw nearer, a domed palace with many turrets?"

And as they approached, Pansy could see she spoke truly. The great transparent palace rose stately and beautiful, surrounded by rose-colored clouds of mist. As they left the butterflies and entered the vast portal, Pansy exclaimed in surprise, "It is a soap-bubble! It is certainly all a soap-bubble! How beautiful it is!" And she was right; from the topmost dome all the sun's brilliant rays sent misty tints of pink, blue, and yellow throughout the great room, which now appeared as the centre of a vast soap-bubble,

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Palace, gaze from thy casement in the castle at a bank of clouds like this. Perhaps, if thou think'st strongly on what thou'st seen in our cloudland, thou wilt perchance get another view of our palace, or see me wave my hand to thee, which I will surely do. Come, my Princess, I have one other wonder which thou

"FOR MORE THAN A MONTH AFTER THAT SHE USED TO STAND AT HER ROSE-TWINED CASEMENT."

her eyes was a daintily spread table, and her nurse and maid sitting at the other side of the rustic summer-house, which she had left so long long ago. Or was it so long? And what had come between? All, her playing-and the pipe and the dream-and then of a sudden little Princess Pansy began to weep. The kind nurse hurried forward, catching the child in her arms with fond caresses. Still she cried: "They have gone, they have gone-all the pretty fairies --all my bubbles-I shall never, never see them any more!"

When her father took her in his arms that evening, as he came to say good-night to the little Princess, he sternly forbade the nurses to laugh at the child's dream, which she believed had really happened.

"Perhaps it was a fairy, after all, my pretty Pansy, who put the idea into your little head. You, at least, my wee daughter, have made an invention of your own, more beautiful than any other I have heard of or seen," and the good King, kissing her tenderly, laid Pansy back in her little white bed in the royal nursery.

But the Princess was not satisfied; and for more than a month after, she used to stand at her rose-twined casement, looking off at the sky where the little clouds chased each other across its blueness, or piled themselves in snowy heaps. Sometimes she used to fancy that she saw the great shining dome of the Bubble Palace among them, or that a hand waved to her from the battlements; but when she turned her eyes away for a minute, to shade them from the sun's bright rays, and then looked back again, the palace in the sky, or what she had thought resembled it, would be only a white mass of floating clouds, and she would turn away from the window with a sigh of disappointment.

[graphic]

However, as the Princess grew older and must see; be on thy guard, and touch no fairy began to study and read her books, the dream thing."

So speaking, the Queen led the way to one side; the great portal opened; and they passed through. But as she hurried after the fairy, the Princess slipped, and, falling, struck the threshold of the Bubble Palace, which on the instant vanished away.

Pansy, with a frightened cry, stumbled to her feet and gazed about her in dismay. What met

faded from her memory; but the pipe with the fairy figure on its handle has been preserved by her children, and, though I have never been so lucky as to see it, I feel sure of its existence, and that some day the fairy, spreading her wings, will fly away-up into the eternal blue, and show the way to the famous Bubble Palace in the clouds, visited in her childhood by the little Princess Pansy.

« PreviousContinue »