FLOWERS FOR THE PRINCESS

Seems someone dared me so here it is! I know I won't get flowers for the Princess so I am giving myself some before I start.

This story began years ago! So far back that I doubt if the details that some seem to remember as facts - are accurate. But nevertheless it makes a good story. As to some of the characters in the story, well let's just say - they may be a little younger than I am but I doubt their minds being any sharper. Be sure to read the moral to the story at the end.

The story goes like this: (Maybe)

Once upon a time there was a Princess who's name was Arielle. She was the oldest daughter of the lovely Queen Marianna. In line, also, were Anna and Maria who were quite a bit younger than Princess Arielle. Only they had not earned their title yet. There is a lot that goes into being a princess. You must be in training for awhile and learn how to perform certain duties. Princess Arielle listened to the Queen and read books on how to perform house hold duties. A series of books she read were the Miss Piggy Wiggy series. (She is too old now to remember the author.)Now Miss Piggy Wiggy would show you how to make a bed and praise you if it was done right. When you finished- she would inspect it to see if you had any wrinkles in it. No wrinkles in the sheets! No siree! It had to be wrinkle free. So, as the story goes, Princess Arielle practiced and practiced until she could do it perfectly. But -there seem to be a problem! Anna and Maria must have an afternoon nap! That was an order from the Queen. You see, the Queen needed a rest for an hour or so from the two little brats. At their age they could keep a person busy. So naptime came and went, but Princess Arielle's work was not over. She had to go and re-make the beds. Yep! Wrinkle free!

The ones that lived in the Palace would have told you that those two were not little angels. They loved to cut out paper dolls - probably from Sears and Roebucks Catolog. Can you imagine the mess? Princess Arielle had a job picking up behind them. But she did it faithfully day in and day out. Not a word of complaint for she loved the two little brats.

Our Queen Mother was not an ordinary Queen. She like to do the cooking for the family. Not only did she have three lovely daughters but she also had three charming Princes. One had already found his Princess and moved on. The other two required a lot of attention, also. Now, Queen Mother took a lot of pride in her children and wanted them to look their best at all times. This required some help from Princess Arielle who was still in training but advancing right along.

Several years passed and Anna and Maria were getting older. They watched Princess Arielle make beds, sweep and mop and iron their clothes. The many duties a princess must learn to get her prince charming! That was way back when Miss Piggy Wiggy taught you how to hang clothes on the clothes line outside. All the wash cloths went together, all the towels went together, all the under wear according to size, and then the boys jeans were put on wire pants stretchers so they would not have to be ironed. All the dress clothes were starched with homemade starch and hung to dry. Princess Arielle always liked to hang clothes and iron. The dress clothes were brought in and sprinkled to be ironed. The next day she would take them to the palace porch and iron for the whole family while Anna and Maria would play. They had no conception of what was being done for them.

Well, the time finally came! Princess Arielle had finished her training. She was now qualified to run a household by herself. But that would be a few years yet! In the meantime - it was time to train Anna and Maria to be princess. But how? It semed Princess Arielle came up with an idea! She would play a game with them and make work seem like fun. She would sit on the throne and give orders and they were to obey the princess. They were to do a thorough job and see which one could out do the other one. She taught them how to sweep the palace porch, even in the corners and how to pick up anything that was out of place. (The princess is so old now that she can't remember what all she taught them and she wondered for a long time if they had learn anything.) Something happened before she got to the end of their training. They caught on that they were doing all the work while she just sat on the throne. The idea of playing Princess was a great idea, anyway. Wasn't that how they learned a lot? They may not admit it or may never have realized what they really learned as servants to the Princess.

Princess Arielle moved on with her life and found her Prince Charming. But it took Princess Anna and Maria awhile to get on with their life. They had to go out and look for their Prince Charmings. I sometimes wonder if these Prince Brothers just felt sorry for the Princess Sisters and married them to have someone for their slave. To clean house, wash and iron clothes and whatever duties come with being married to a Prince? Only they know! But they all ended up having a good life so all the hard work that the Princess Arielle did was not in vain.

The moral to this story is: If you have lazy little sisters -just play a game of "PRINCESS" with them. Just be careful not to get caught! If you do get caught you will never hear the end of the story. <