Sleeping Beauty
Well, it was a splendid party! There were silver dishes piled high with
delicious food and golden plates at every place. And when everyone had finished eating,
the fairies gathered around the baby's cradle and they each made a magic wish. The
princess shall be beautiful said the first. And happy, said the second. And kind, said the
third. And so they went on. The princess was to be brave, and clever and truthful. She was
to have a sweet singing voice and light dancing feet
And, then, just as the twelfth fairy was about to make her wish, in came the
thirteenth. She was furious, because she had not been invited to the party. Here is my
wish, she said. "When the princess is 16 years old, she will prick her finger on a
spindle and she will die." And with that, the thirteenth fairy vanished.
hen the 12th fairy said, "I cannot change all of the wicked fairies
powerful magic." So the princess will prick her finger but she will not die! She
slept for a hundred years. The king and queen thanked the fairy for her kindness but they
were not happy. They did not want their daughter to sleep for a hundred years. So they
ordered that every spinning wheel and spindle in the land must be chopped up and burnt.
Then they thought that the princess was safe.
The years passed and the princess grew up. She was very beautiful and clever at
lots of different things. She was, in fact, everything the fairies had wished her to be.
On her sixteenth birthday, the princess was exploring the castle when she came to a little
room at the top of a tall tower. And in that room was an old woman sitting by a spinning
wheel. "What are you doing?" asked the princess?"
"I am spinning," said the old woman, who was really the wicked
thirteenth fairy, "would you like to try?"
"Oh yes," said the princess, and she sat down by the spinning wheel.
But as soon as she touched the spindle, the sharp point pricked her finger and she fell
asleep.
And the old woman vanished. At that same moment, the king and the queen, the
servants, the cats and the dogs all fell asleep! Even the fire stopped burning and the
roasting meat stopped sizzling. Everything slept.
Then a hedge of wild roses grew up around the castle. It grew and it grew until
the castle was hidden.
One hundred years passed and then a prince came riding by and saw the top of
the tower rising up above the hedge of roses. How strange, he said, I never knew there was
a castle here!
He jumped off his horse and lifted his sword to cut away the hedge. But as soon
as the sword touched the branch, a path opened up in front of him. So prince walked freely
through the hedge. He entered castle, and walked from room to room. Imagine his surprise,
everyone and everything was fast asleep.
At last he entered a little room at the end of a tall tower and he saw the
sleeping princess. She was so very beautiful that he bent down and kissed her. Then the
spell was broken and the princess opened her eyes.
At the same moment, everyone and everything in the castle awoke! The king
yawned, the queen blinked, the cats had a good stretch and the dogs wagged their tails.
The servants began to work, the fire began to flame, and the roasting meat
began to sizzle. A hundred years had not changed anyone or anything.
And what happened next? Why the beautiful princess married the prince, who had
woken her from such a long deep sleep.
The End.