The Sleeping Beauty Part Two By Charles Perrault, Fairy Tales for Kids

Down on the pond today, Bertie is feeling an extra bit sad. He's really glumming around. Sadie the Swan, who between you and me always takes extra special notice of Bertie, said to him, Poor, poor Bertie, you look so pale green today. What's wrong? Oh, I don't know, said Bertie glumly. It's just, well, just that I think I miss the lovely Princess Beatrice. He croaked for a bit before going on. You see, she was so very, very beautiful, and I just really miss her. Oh, Bertie, sighed Sadie. That's just about the saddest thing I've ever heard a frog say. Just then Colin the carp interrupted them. That's because Bertie's the only frog you know, he snapped. Colin is a very grumpy carp, and he can be quite rude sometimes. Be quiet, you silly fish, said Sadie. You've no romance, no love. No, no. Well, it's all so sad. I just don't know what to say. You could tell me how to become a prince again, said Bertie. Well, I've got an idea. Today we'll tell a special story full of love and romance. Oh, it will be wonderful, and all the children will listen, and then you can be a prince again. Oh, no, not another soppy story, said Colin the carp. That'll only make him go on about the lovely Princess Beatrice even more, and we'll all die of boredom. What Bertie needs is a good old-fashioned fright. That'll empty his green head of all your romantic nonsense. Sadie was most unimpressed by Colin the carp's speech, but Bertie says he's willing to give anything a try once. And so today I'm going to tell you a rather scary story. Do you like scary stories? You won't be frightened. Just a bit. Well, I think I might be just a bit frightened when I tell you about the ogress who wanted to eat up the Sleeping Beauty and both her little children. If you listen to the first part of the story Norrie called The Sleeping Beauty, you will know that a handsome prince discovered a Sleeping Beauty in a palace in the woods. She had been fast asleep for 100 years, but when he kissed her hand, she woke up and fell in love with him. They were married that very day. The morning after the handsome prince had married the Sleeping Beauty, he left her and returned home to the city where his father, the king, was anxiously waiting for him. When he reached home, the prince said that he had lost his way in the forest as he was hunting, and that he had slept in the cottage of a farmer who gave him cheese and brown bread. He did not say a word about the Sleeping Beauty, let alone how he had married her. The king, his father, who was a good man, believed him, but his mother could not be persuaded it was true. And seeing that he went almost every day hunting and that he always had some excuse ready for so doing, though he had slept out three or four nights together, she began to suspect that he was married, for he lived with the princess for over two whole years and they had two children, the eldest of which, who was a daughter, was named Morning, and the youngest, who was a son, they called Day. The queen spoke several times to her son to ask him how he passed the time, but he never dared to trust her with his secret. He feared her, though he loved her, for she was of the race of the ogres, and the king would never have married her had it not been for her money. It was even whispered about the court that she had ogreish inclinations and that whenever she saw little children passing by, she had all the difficulty in the world to stop herself pouncing on them and gobbling them up for a snack. And so, the prince would never tell her one word about his beautiful wife and two little children, but instead kept them a secret. His father died about two years later, and although the prince was very sad, he became lord and master both of the people and of himself. A month later, he announced his marriage to the cheering crowds, and he led his beloved wife, the former Sleeping Beauty, in a great procession to the palace. They made a magnificent entry into the capital city, she riding between her two children. For now, he was king, and she was queen of all the land. Soon after, the king went to make war with the emperor Contalabute, his neighbour. He left his wife, the Sleeping Beauty, and his two children, Prince Day and Princess Morning, in the care of his mother. His war went on all summer, and after a while, his mother, the ogres, said to the Sleeping Beauty, Why don't you go to visit your old palace in the forest, my dear, and see that everything is in order there? And I will look after Little Princess Morning and Little Prince Day. And so the Sleeping Beauty went to visit her old palace in the forest to see that everything was in order there. And she left Little Princess Morning and Little Prince Day in the care of the king's mother. For she did not know that she was an ogre who craved to eat little children for dinner. As soon as the Sleeping Beauty was gone, the queen went into the palace kitchen. She said, I have an idea to eat Little Morning for my dinner tomorrow. Ah, madam, cried the chief cook of the kitchen. I will have it so, replied the queen. And this she spoke in the tone of an ogre who had a strong desire to eat fresh meat. And I will eat her with a cranberry sauce. The poor man, knowing very well that he must not play tricks with ogres, took his great knife and went up into Little Morning's chamber. She was then four years old and came up to him, jumping and laughing, to take him about the neck and asked him for some sugar candy, upon which he began to weep. The great knife fell out of his hand and he went back into the yard and killed a little lamb and dressed it with such a good sauce that his mistress assured him that she had never eaten anything so good in her life. But in truth, he had saved Little Morning and carried her to his wife to hide her in a hut he had at the bottom of the courtyard. About eight days afterward, the wicked queen said to the chief cook of the kitchen, I will eat Little Day for my supper. He answered not a word, being resolved to cheat her as he had done before. He went out to find Little Day and saw him with a little sword in his hand with which he was fencing with a great monkey, the child being then only of three years of age. He took him up in his arms and carried him to his wife that she might hide him in her bedroom along with his sister. And in the place of Little Day, he cooked up a young goat, very tender, which the ogress found to be wonderfully good. And so far, all was well. But one evening, this wicked queen said to her chief cook of the kitchen, I will eat the sleeping beauty and you will cook her with the same sauce I had with her children. It was now that the poor clerk of the kitchen despaired of being able to deceive her. The young queen was turned of twenty, not reckoning the hundred years she had been asleep. And how to find a beast of the size and shape and firmness puzzled him. He decided that to save his own life, he must kill the sleeping beauty. And so he went to her palace in the forest, meaning to do just that. He put himself into as foul a mood as he could possibly manage and came into the sleeping beauty's room in the palace with his dagger in his hand. When he saw her beautiful face, he could not bring himself to kill her, but told her with a great deal of respect the orders he had received from the queen mother. Do it, do it, said she, stretching out her neck. Execute your orders and then I shall go and see my children, my poor children, whom I so much and so tenderly loved. For after hearing of the queen's orders, she thought that they must be dead. No, no, madam, cried the poor chief cook of the kitchen, all in tears. You shall not die and yet you shall see your children again. But then you must go home with me to my hut where I have hidden them and I shall deceive the queen once more by giving her in your place a young deer for her dinner. And so he led her to his hut. While leaving her to embrace her children and cry along with them, he went and dressed a young deer, which the queen had for her supper and devoured it with the same appetite as if it had been the sleeping beauty. She was so delighted with her cruelty and she had invented a story to tell the king on his return how the mad wolves had eaten up his wife and her two children. One evening, when she was rambling round about the courts and yards of the palace to see if she could smell any fresh meat, she heard in a ground room Little Prince Day crying for his mama was sending him to bed without supper because he had been naughty. And she heard at the same time Little Morning begging pardon for her brother. The ogress knew the voice of the sleeping beauty and her children and being quite mad that she had been tricked, she commanded next morning by break of day with a most horrible voice which made everybody tremble that they should bring into the middle of the great court a large tub which she ordered to be filled with toads, vipers, snakes and all sorts of serpents in order to have thrown into it the sleeping beauty and her children, the chief cook of the kitchen, his wife and maid and all whom she had given orders should be brought there with their hands tied behind them. They were brought out and the executioners were just going to throw them into the tub when the king, who was not so soon expected, entered the court on horseback for he came post and asked with the utmost astonishment what was the meaning of this horrible spectacle? No one dared tell him but the ogress, all in a fury to see what had happened, threw herself headfirst into the tub and was instantly gobbled up by the ugly creatures she had ordered to be thrown into it for the others. The king was very sorry for the ogress had been his own mother but he soon comforted himself with his beautiful wife and his pretty children and they lived happily ever after. The End That was indeed a rather scary story although it had a happy ending. Do you think Bertie has forgotten all about the beautiful Princess Beatrice? To make certain, go and visit him on his lovely green and purple website at storynori.com and be sure to cheer him up with a few jokes.