princess ran through passage after passage, and could not find the stair
of the tower. My own suspicion is that she had not gone up high
enough,
and was searching on the second instead of the third floor. When she
turned to go back, she failed equally in her search after the stair. She
was lost once more.
Something made it even worse to bear this time, and it was no wonder
that she cried again. Suddenly it occurred to her that it was after
having cried before that she had found her grandmother's stair. She
got
up at once, wiped her eyes, and started upon a fresh quest. This time,
although she did not find what she hoped, she found what was next
best:
she did not come on a stair that went up, but she came upon one that
went down. It was evidently not the stair she had come up, yet it was a
good deal better than none; so down she went, and was singing merrily
before she reached the bottom. There, to her surprise, she found
herself
in the kitchen. Although she was not allowed to go there alone, her
nurse had often taken her, and she was a great favorite with the
servants. So there was a general rush at her the moment she appeared,
for every one wanted to have her; and the report of where she was soon
Madhuri Noah
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