Once upon a time there was a Prince who, through no fault of his own was
cast under a spell by an evil witch.
The curse was that the Prince could speak only one word each year.
However, he could save up the words so that if he did not speak for a
whole year, then the following year he was allowed to speak two words.
(This was before the time of letter writing or sign language.) One day
he met a beautiful princess (ruby lips, golden hair, sapphire eyes,) and
fell madly in love. With the greatest difficulty he decided to refrain
from speaking for two whole years so that he could look at her and say
"my darling". But at the end of the two years he wished to tell her that
he loved her. Because of this he waited three more years without
speaking (bringing the total number of silent years to 5). But at the
end of these five years he realized that he had to ask her to marry him.
So he waited ANOTHER four years without speaking. Finally as the ninth
year of silence ended, his joy knew no bounds. Leading the lovely
princess to the most secluded and romantic place in that beautiful royal
garden the prince heaped a hundred red roses on her lap, knelt before
her, and taking her hand in his, said huskily, "My darling, I love you!
Will you marry me?" And the princess tucked a strand of golden hair
behind a dainty ear, opened her sapphire eyes in wonder, and parting her
ruby lips, said: "Pardon?"
AI
