Page:The Floating Prince - Frank R Stockton.djvu/175

160 bushels of crackers he had in his pocket, and then thought he would take a nap. This place was dry, and the sun was warm; so he put his head in the shade and went to sleep; and the shade had moved and his face had been in the sunshine for about an hour, when a princess came riding by.

Her name was Falema, and she was very unhappy. She was unhappy because she was going to be married in a day or two. She was not grieving because she did not love the young king, Gantalor, to whom she was engaged, but because the wedding was to come off before she was ready. The young king was a very fine fellow, but he was nearly always at war. In a day or two he was to have a short peace, and he wanted to get married before he had to go to war again. So Falema's father had settled it that the wedding was to come off the day that Gantalor's peace should commence. Falema was not ready for this great affair. There had been such short notice, that only part of her dresses were made up, and it distressed her greatly to think that she would not make a proper appearance in her husband's palace, if she should be married so soon. So she was unhappy, and had gone out that morning on her pony, attended by her ladies and a few slaves, to see if the fresh air would do her good. When she suddenly came upon the giant lying under the tree, she was frightened, but some of her people told her it was Derido, and that he would hurt nobody. So then she began to pity him, lying there with his face all exposed to the sun.

"It's dreadful," said she. "He will get freckled."

So she took out her handkerchief, and all her ladies took out their handkerchiefs, and they spread them over such parts of the giant's face as they could reach; but they did not begin to cover it. Then they tried their sun-umbrellas, but they did not amount to very much, either.