"Dear dovey, don't peck me. You'll pull out my hair with your long
claws, if you don't have a care."
The king stretched out his hand to take the pigeon, but it spread its
wings and flew again through the open window, when its whiteness
made
one flash in the sun and vanished. The king laid his hand on the
princess's head, held it back a little, gazed in her face, smiled half a
smile and sighed half a sigh.
"Come, my child; we'll have a walk in the garden together," he said.
"You won't come up and see my huge, great, beautiful grandmother,
then,
king-papa?" said the princess.
"Not this time," said the king very gently. "She has not invited me, you
know, and great old ladies like her do not choose to be visited without
leave asked and given."
The garden was a very lovely place. Being upon a mountain side, there
were parts in it where the rocks came through in great masses, and all
Madhuri Noah
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