The Spoiled Princess
Long ago Princess Callista lived with parents who loved her and catered to her every whim. They granted her every wish, never telling her, No.”
Since she always got her own way Callista considered this to be the normal state of things that the world, or at least her part of it, revolved around her. Her demands became increasingly outrageous and when her attendants did not satisfy them to her complete satisfaction, she mistreated them sorely with harsh words and objects tossed in their direction. The palace staff avoided her as much as possible. Even the king and queen were not spared their daughter’s tirades and took to limiting time spent with their daughter.
Callista’s actions grew so intolerable that on her thirteenth birthday her parents built a castle for her and sent her there. This arrangement suited the spoiled princess because it provided more freedom for her to do as she wished. It satisfied the king and queen because they no longer had to listen to their daughter’s constant demands and complaints and observe her horrid behavior.
While this placement satisfied the royal family, it proved most disagreeable to the servants assigned to attend to her needs. She mistreated them with even less restraint than she did when in her parents’ castle. They sought ways to become released from their positions feigning illness, urgent business elsewhere, or some other excuse until her handmaid remained. The kindly woman did so, from pity and hope for the princess’s change.
Callista’s freedom to rule her own castle brought her little happiness. As people found ways to avoid her, she felt neglected. After all, shouldn’t she be the center of attention not in the least ignored? Such neglect brought her loneliness although she would never admit it.
The day the princess heard the news that a king in a neighboring country imposed a toll on everyone who traveled his roads. She embraced that idea and demanded her father to redirect the road to the royal palace so that it passed by her castle where she had a toll booth erected. She herself sat in said booth to collect fees from hapless travelers. This arrangement forced people to give her the attention she felt she deserved.
This situation complicated the lives of that kingdom’s citizens. It forced those unable to spend the time going miles out of their way to avoid the toll to pay the required fee of a silver coin or a worthy gift.
One day a man dressed in camel skin and wearing a long ragged beard and equally long and ragged hair, approached the toll barrier. Princess Callista, not liking his appearance, made him wait. When she finally attended to him she demanded, “One silver coin.”
The man replied, “I have no silver.”
“Then a gold coin will do,” the heartless princess retorted.
“I Have no gold either. But such as I have, I give you.” He produced from his satchel a gemstone such as Callista had not before seen. The man in the camel’s skin held the stone which sparkled in the midday sun. “This is not an ordinary stone,” he said. “It is a fairy stone. If you call upon it a fairy will come and grant you a wish.”
Callista did not believe him but since the stone was pretty and she sensed she’d not get anything better, she accepted the token and permitted the man to pass.
That evening the royal cook brought her a fine meal of roast quail, potatoes, greens, and a delicious cherry mousse. After much complaint about her fine supper, the princess retreated to her bed-chamber. She put the fairy stone on her dressing table and demanded its fairy appear. She stepped back expecting nothing. To her surprise, a glow hovered over the stone. Within the glow, floated a winged lady the size of Callista’s fist.
Now, Callista not willing to let any opportunity to receive a gift escape, snapped into quick action. Grabbing a glass jar full of fine candies, she slapped it over the fairy and the stone, causing candy to rain on her tiny visitor’s golden wings.
The fairy brushed sweets off her shoulders and from her hair. “You had no need to trap me, you know, You have my stone. That is enough. I will grant you a wish.”
The princess answered, “Well, I’m not taking any chances. I’m going to wait until I see what you give me before I let you go. This is my castle and everyone that enters must give me a gift, something worthy of me.”
The fairy rubbed her chin. “Worthy of the likes of you. Well, you have it.” She waved her arms. A tabletop mirror appeared on the dressing table adjacent to the candy jar.
Callista frowned. “I’m disappointed in you, good fairy. Look around this room. I have plenty of mirrors. Each is fairer than the one you offer me.” Indeed, the princess had several much finer-looking glasses placed around her chamber.
The fairy replied, “True, but none are magic mirrors. My looking glass shows things as they really are.”
Callista thought about how she could use such a mirror to her advantage. If the mirror shows things as they really are, she reasoned, then I will be able to read people’s thoughts and intentions. I can use this power to compel them more to do my will.
Callista released the fairy and sitting in front of the glass she ventured a look into it, but nothing prepared her for what she saw. She recoiled. A hideous, deformed face stared back at her. She touched her cheek, and the image did the same. “You are a deceitful fairy. You tricked me. Come back to your jar,” she said
“Not at all, answered her visitor. “I granted your wish. I told the truth. Any mirror can show the outside of a person, but this one shows what lies within, and on the inside, you are downright ugly.”
Callista picked up the mirror and threw it at the fairy who deftly dodged it and flew away. With the sprite out of sight. Callista gathered the magic looking-glass and carried it to the castle-high refuse pile behind her palace. She tossed it on the heap, just another discarded item. So much for gifts from fairies, she opined.
She gave the magic looking-glass no more thought, but gifts from fairies are not easily dismissed. The next night when she retired to her bed-chamber, the glass sat in its former place on her dressing table. Unable to resist she peered into it and spied the same horrid figure as before. She screamed for her maidservant. When the hapless maiden arrived Callista vented. “Lizzie, how did this horrible glass get to my table?”
Lizzie hung her head afraid to utter a word.
“Speak up,” the princess raged. “You are the only one that could have fetched it from the garbage heap. When I throw something away it does not return unless I say so. Now take this cursed glass to the trash where it belongs.”
Lizzie did as ordered, but returned to the bed-chamber when summoned the following night. Again, the looking glass sat upon the irate princess’s table. Lizzie protested. “But your Highness, I did as you ordered and have no idea how this mirror returned.”
Callista’s eyes blazed. “No idea? I’ll not tolerate your insubordinate games. You are dismissed from my service. Leave my castle at once.”
After Lizzie retreated, Callista seized the looking glass and smashed it against the wall. She gathered up the pieces, for she now had no servant to perform the task, and threw every bit from an upstairs window onto the trash pile. Returning to her chamber she discovered that not only did the mirror sit whole on the table, but all her other glasses had shattered. “I’ll not be driven mad,” she told herself and covered the magic mirror with a blanket, and went to bed.
The following morning the blanket had fallen, and the mirror glared with the familiar hideous figure. All attempts to cover the offending glass or to turn it so she could not see the image it revealed failed. She tried sleeping in another chamber, but the glass followed her there. It continued to mock her. At last, she gazed into the mirror and whispered, “Am I really that ugly?” No answer.
Four days later, Callista answered a knock on her door. Normally she’d order her servant to answer but until her father sent a replacement, she had none. A beggar girl in rags greeted her. “Pardon me your highness, but could you spare a morsel or two of food?”
The princess reacted as expected. “This is a princess’s castle. You don’t beg for food here.” She slammed the door in the beggar girl’s face.
The following three mornings, the knock, the girl, and the same result.
On the fifth day when the girl returned Callista did the unexpected. Whether she took pity or was weary of having no one to talk to she invited the girl in. The waif smiled. The spoiled princess gave her some bread and cheese and a glass of goat’s milk, before sending the child on her way. That evening when looking into the mirror, Callista noticed that some lines of ugliness in her image had disappeared.
The following day the temperature plummeted making it the coldest day of the year. Callista waited for the beggar girl to come. She grew afraid that the frail child had succumbed to the bitter chill. Her mind raced, Why did I not ask the child to stay with me? All-day the princess watched. Late afternoon–a knock. Callista answered with bated breath. When she opened the door, the beggar child stood shivering.
The spoiled princess led the girl to the warmest room in her castle–her bed-chamber. The mirror stood in its usual place. As the child passed by the magic glass, Callista marveled. The mirror revealed the child as a lass possessing great attractiveness rivaling the princess’s own outward beauty.
Callista stared at the shivering child. She wanted to dress the girl in warm clothes of her own, but her wardrobe stood empty. She had no servant to return her things from the royal palace. I’ll give the child what I am wearing, she decided. And helping the child shed her rags she clothed her with her own dress. With nothing to wear herself, she donned the child’s rags. She reasoned I might as well wear these. I’m so ugly on the inside, rags only complete the look.
What occurred next goes beyond explanation. Callista’s cold, hard heart thawed on that bitterly cold day. She stared at the beggar girl who now appeared quite beautiful in princess’s clothing. Callista smiled. “Here,” she said and placed her crown on the girl’s head. “You might as well have this. It better fits you than me. I have no more right to be a princess than do you.”
The girl smiled and then to Callista’s surprise, she began to glow and shrink, morphing into the fairy of the mirror. “No, my dear,” The tiny lady said. “The crown now belongs on you. Look in the glass.”
Callista stared and a beautiful princess stared back. She touched her face. “What? Is the mirror no longer magic?”
“It is as it has always been. It is you that has changed.” The fairy waved her arm and the beggar girl’s rags disappeared replaced by the princess’s fine dress.
The next day, Callista rescinded the toll on the road past her castle. However, she did not remove the barrier. But instead of requiring passersby to pay her, she gave from the hoard of gifts she had accumulated. Her pile of discarded gifts contained many useful items. When the pile became depleted she tore the barrier down.
The former spoiled princess went down to the village where Lizzy had gone and offered to reinstate the maid to her previous position. The former servant agreed despite much. However, she soon noticed Callista’s change of heart and served her faithfully. As word got around concerning the former despot’s transformation and more domestics were added to the princess’s service, Lizzy became the chief of staff. When in time when Calista returned to her father’s castle Lizzy came with her, not just as a maidservant but as a friend.
The princess’s parents, amazed at their daughter’s transformation of character received her with open arms. When she became queen, her subjects adored her honoring her for her caring, generous heart. She kept the magic mirror on her dressing table and each night peered into it. As years passed, her other mirrors revealed the inevitable marks of age, but the magic one continued to show her inner beauty. Callista studied her reflection daily, not from vanity but to alert herself should any ugliness creep into her heart.