spinning.
Perhaps you will wonder how the princess could tell that the old

lady was an old lady, when I inform you that not only was she
beautiful, but her skin was smooth and white. I will tell you

more. Her hair was combed back from her forehead and face, and
hung loose far down and all over her back. That is not much like

an old lady - is it? Ah! but it was white almost as snow. And
although her face was so smooth, her eyes looked so wise that you

could not have helped seeing she must be old. The princess, though
she could not have told you why, did think her very old indeed -

quite fifty, she said to herself. But she was rather older than
that, as you shall hear.

While the princess stared bewildered, with her head just inside the
door, the old lady lifted hers, and said, in a sweet, but old and

rather shaky voice, which mingled very pleasantly with the
continued hum of her wheel:

'Come in, my dear; come in. I am glad to see you.'
That the princess was a real princess you might see now quite

plainly; for she didn't hang on to the handle of the door, and
stare without moving, as I have known some do who ought to have

been princesses but were only rather vulgar little girls. She did
as she was told, stepped inside the door at once, and shut it

gently behind her.
'Come to me, my dear,' said the old lady.

And again the princess did as she was told. She approached the old
lady - rather slowly, I confess - but did not stop until she stood

by her side, and looked up in her face with her blue eyes and the
two melted stars in them.

'Why, what have you been doing with your eyes, child?' asked the
old lady.

'Crying,' answered the princess.
'Why, child?'

'Because I couldn't find my way down again.'
'But you could find your way up.'

'Not at first - not for a long time.'
'But your face is streaked like the back of a zebra. Hadn't you a

handkerchief to wipe your eyes with?'
'No.'

'Then why didn't you come to me to wipe them for you?'
'Please, I didn't know you were here. I will next time.'

'There's a good child!' said the old lady.
Then she stopped her wheel, and rose, and, going out of the room,

returned with a little silver basin and a soft white towel, with
which she washed and wiped the bright little face. And the

princess thought her hands were so smooth and nice!
When she carried away the basin and towel, the little princess

wondered to see how straight and tall she was, for, although she
was so old, she didn't stoop a bit. She was dressed in black

velvet with thick white heavy-looking lace about it; and on the
black dress her hair shone like silver. There was hardly any more

furniture in the room than there might have been in that of the
poorest old woman who made her bread by her spinning. There was no

carpet on the floor - no table anywhere - nothing but the
spinning-wheel and the chair beside it. When she came back, she

sat down and without a word began her spinning once more, while
Irene, who had never seen a spinning-wheel, stood by her side and

looked on. When the old lady had got her thread fairly going
again, she said to the princess, but without looking at her:

'Do you know my name, child?'
'No, I don't know it,' answered the princess.

'my name is Irene.'
'That's my name!' cried the princess.

'I know that. I let you have mine. I haven't got your name.
You've got mine.'

'How can that be?' asked the princess, bewildered. 'I've always
had my name.'

'Your papa, the king, asked me if I had any objection to your
having it; and, of course, I hadn't. I let you have it with

pleasure.'
'It was very kind of you to give me your name - and such a pretty

one,' said the princess.
'Oh, not so very kind!' said the old lady. 'A name is one of those

things one can give away and keep all the same. I have a good many
such things. Wouldn't you like to know who I am, child?'

'Yes, that I should - very much.'
'I'm your great-great-grandmother,' said the lady.

'What's that?' asked the princess.
'I'm your father's mother's father's mother.'

'Oh, dear! I can't understand that,' said the princess.
'I dare say not. I didn't expect you would. But that's no reason

why I shouldn't say it.'
'Oh, no!' answered the princess.

'I will explain it all to you when you are older,' the lady went
on. 'But you will be able to understand this much now: I came here

to take care of you.'
'Is it long since you came? Was it yesterday? Or was it today,

because it was so wet that I couldn't get out?'
'I've been here ever since you came yourself.'

'What a long time!' said the princess. 'I don't remember it at
all.'

'No. I suppose not.'
'But I never saw you before.'

'No. But you shall see me again.'
'Do you live in this room always?'

'I don't sleep in it. I sleep on the opposite side of the landing.
I sit here most of the day.'

'I shouldn't like it. My nursery is much prettier. You must be a
queen too, if you are my great big grand-mother.'

'Yes, I am a queen.'
'Where is your crown, then?'

'In my bedroom.'
'I should like to see it.'

'You shall some day - not today.'
'I wonder why nursie never told me.'

'Nursie doesn't know. She never saw me.'
'But somebody knows that you are in the house?'

'No; nobody.'
'How do you get your dinner, then?'

'I keep poultry - of a sort.'
'Where do you keep them?'

'I will show you.'
'And who makes the chicken broth for you?'

'I never kill any of MY chickens.'
'Then I can't understand.'

'What did you have for breakfast this morning?' asked the lady.
'Oh! I had bread and milk, and an egg - I dare say you eat their

eggs.'
'Yes, that's it. I eat their eggs.'

'Is that what makes your hair so white?'
'No, my dear. It's old age. I am very old.'

'I thought so. Are you fifty?'
'Yes - more than that.'

'Are you a hundred?'
'Yes - more than that. I am too old for you to guess. Come and

see my chickens.'
Again she stopped her spinning. She rose, took the princess by the

hand, led her out of the room, and opened the door opposite the
stair. The princess expected to see a lot of hens and chickens,

but instead of that, she saw the blue sky first, and then the roofs
of the house, with a multitude of the loveliest pigeons, mostly

white, but of all colours, walking about, making bows to each
other, and talking a language she could not understand. She

clapped her hands with delight, and up rose such a flapping of
wings that she in her turn was startled.

'You've frightened my poultry,' said the old lady, smiling.
'And they've frightened me,' said the princess, smiling too. 'But

what very nice poultry! Are the eggs nice?'
'Yes, very nice.'

'What a small egg-spoon you must have! Wouldn't it be better to
keep hens, and get bigger eggs?'

'How should I feed them, though?'
'I see,' said the princess. 'The pigeons feed themselves. They've

got wings.'
'Just so. If they couldn't fly, I couldn't eat their eggs.'

'But how do you get at the eggs? Where are their nests?'
The lady took hold of a little loop of string in the wall at the

side of the door and, lifting a shutter, showed a great many
pigeon-holes with nests, some with young ones and some with eggs in

them. The birds came in at the other side, and she took out the
eggs on this side. She closed it again quickly, lest the young

ones should be frightened.
'Oh, what a nice way!' cried the princess. 'Will you give me an

egg to eat? I'm rather hungry.'
'I will some day, but now you must go back, or nursie will be

miserable about you. I dare say she's looking for you everywhere.'
'Except here,' answered the princess. 'Oh, how surprised she will

be when I tell her about my great big grand-grand-mother!'
'Yes, that she will!' said the old lady with a curious smile.

'Mind you tell her all about it exactly.'
'That I will. Please will you take me back to her?'

'I can't go all the way, but I will take you to the top of the
stair, and then you must run down quite fast into your own room.'

The little princess put her hand in the old lady's, who, looking
this way and that, brought her to the top of the first stair, and

thence to the bottom of the second, and did not leave her till she
saw her half-way down the third. When she heard the cry of her

nurse's pleasure at finding her, she turned and walked up the
stairs again, very fast indeed for such a very great grandmother,

and sat down to her spinning with another strange smile on her
sweet old face.

About this spinning of hers I will tell you more another time.
Guess what she was spinning.

CHAPTER 4
What the Nurse Thought of It

'Why, where can you have been, princess?' asked the nurse, taking
her in her arms. 'It's very unkind of you to hide away so long.

I began to be afraid -' Here she checked herself.
'What were you afraid of, nursie?' asked the princess.

'Never mind,' she answered. 'Perhaps I will tell you another day.
Now tell me where you have been.'

'I've been up a long way to see my very great, huge, old
grandmother,' said the princess.

'What do you mean by that?' asked the nurse, who thought she was
making fun.

'I mean that I've been a long way up and up to see My GREAT
grandmother. Ah, nursie, you don't know what a beautiful mother of

grandmothers I've got upstairs. She is such an old lady, with such
lovely white hair - as white as my silver cup. Now, when I think

of it, I think her hair must be silver.'
'What nonsense you are talking, princess!' said the nurse.

'I'm not talking nonsense,' returned Irene, rather offended. 'I
will tell you all about her. She's much taller than you, and much

prettier.'
'Oh, I dare say!' remarked the nurse.

'And she lives upon pigeons' eggs.'
'Most likely,' said the nurse.

'And she sits in an empty room, spin-spinning all day long.'
'Not a doubt of it,' said the nurse.

'And she keeps her crown in her bedroom.'
'Of course - quite the proper place to keep her crown in. She

wears it in bed, I'll be bound.'

• princess [,prin´ses] n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人 (初中英语单词)
• forehead [´fɔrid] n.额，前部 (初中英语单词)
• confess [kən´fes] vt.供认；坦白；承认 (初中英语单词)
• anywhere [´eniweə] ad.无论何处；任何地方 (初中英语单词)
• objection [əb´dʒekʃən] n.反对；异议；缺点 (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• multitude [´mʌltitju:d] n.大群(批)；众多 (初中英语单词)
• seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
• pleasantly [´plezntli] ad.令人愉快地；舒适地 (高中英语单词)
• spinning [´spiniŋ] n.纺织 a.纺织品的 (高中英语单词)
• nursery [´nə:səri] n.托儿所；苗床；养鱼场 (高中英语单词)
• poultry [´pəultri] n.&v.家禽 (高中英语单词)
• shutter [´ʃʌtə] n.百叶窗；(相机)快门 (高中英语单词)
• half-way [´hɑ:fwei] ad.半途；几乎 (高中英语单词)
• finding [´faindiŋ] n.发现物；判断；结果 (高中英语单词)
• nonsense [´nɔnsəns] n.胡说 int.胡说!废话 (高中英语单词)
• vulgar [´vʌlgə] a.粗俗的；大众的 (英语四级单词)
• unkind [,ʌn´kaind] a.不客气的；不和善的 (英语四级单词)
• upstairs [,ʌp´steəz] ad.在楼上 a.楼上的 (英语四级单词)