{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_23344/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_23344","id":"gutenberg_23344","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23344","summary":null,"tags":["Category: British Literature","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Children's Picture Books","Children's stories","Fairy tales","Humorous stories","Princesses -- Fiction"],"text":"E-text prepared by Anne Storer and the Project Gutenberg Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) from digital material\ngenerously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries\n(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)\n\n\n\nNote: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n      file which includes the original illustrations.\n      See 23344-h.htm or 23344-h.zip:\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/3/4/23344/23344-h/23344-h.htm)\n      or\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/3/4/23344/23344-h.zip)\n\n\n      Images of the original pages are available through\n      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See\n      http://www.archive.org/details/magicfishbonehol00dick\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MAGIC FISHBONE\n\nby\n\nCHARLES DICKENS\n\nWith Illustrations by S. Beatrice Pearse\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Queen came in most splendidly dressed p. 27]\n\n\nTHE MAGIC FISHBONE\n\nA Holiday Romance\nfrom the Pen of\nMiss Alice Rainbird\nAged 7.\n\nby\n\nCHARLES DICKENS\n\n\n\nLondon: Constable and Co. Ltd.\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nThe story contained herein was written by Charles Dickens in 1867. It is\nthe second of four stories entitled \"Holiday Romance\" and was published\noriginally in a children's magazine in America. It purports to be written\nby a child aged seven. It was republished in England in \"All the Year\nRound\" in 1868. For this and four other Christmas pieces Dickens received\nL1,000.\n\n\"Holiday Romance\" was published in book form by Messrs Chapman & Hall in\n1874, with \"Edwin Drood\" and other stories.\n\nFor this reprint the text of the story as it appeared in \"All the Year\nRound\" has been followed.\n\n\n                *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n[Illustration: SEVERAL OF THE CHILDREN WERE GROWING OUT OF THEIR CLOTHES]\n\nThere was once a King, and he had a Queen; and he was the manliest of\nhis sex, and she was the loveliest of hers. The King was, in his private\nprofession, Under Government. The Queen's father had been a medical man\nout of town.\n\nThey had nineteen children, and were always having more. Seventeen of\nthese children took care of the baby; and Alicia, the eldest, took care\nof them all. Their ages varied from seven years to seven months.\n\nLet us now resume our story.\n\nOne day the King was going to the office, when he stopped at the\nfishmonger's to buy a pound and a half of salmon not too near the tail,\nwhich the Queen (who was a careful housekeeper) had requested him to send\nhome. Mr Pickles, the fishmonger, said, \"Certainly, sir, is there any\nother article, Good-morning.\"\n\nThe King went on towards the office in a melancholy mood, for quarter day\nwas such a long way off, and several of the dear children were growing out\nof their clothes. He had not proceeded far, when Mr Pickles's errand-boy\ncame running after him, and said, \"Sir, you didn't notice the old lady in\nour shop.\"\n\n\"What old lady?\" enquired the King. \"I saw none.\"\n\nNow, the King had not seen any old lady, because this old lady had been\ninvisible to him, though visible to Mr Pickles's boy. Probably because he\nmessed and splashed the water about to that degree, and flopped the pairs\nof soles down in that violent manner, that, if she had not been visible to\nhim, he would have spoilt her clothes.\n\nJust then the old lady came trotting up. She was dressed in shot-silk of\nthe richest quality, smelling of dried lavender.\n\n\"King Watkins the First, I believe?\" said the old lady.\n\n\"Watkins,\" replied the King, \"is my name.\"\n\n\"Papa, if I am not mistaken, of the beautiful Princess Alicia?\" said the\nold lady.\n\n\"And of eighteen other darlings,\" replied the King.\n\n\"Listen. You are going to the office,\" said the old lady.\n\nIt instantly flashed upon the King that she must be a Fairy, or how could\nshe know that?\n\n\"You are right,\" said the old lady, answering his thoughts, \"I am the Good\nFairy Grandmarina. Attend. When you return home to dinner, politely invite\nthe Princess Alicia to have some of the salmon you bought just now.\"\n\n\"It may disagree with her,\" said the King.\n\nThe old lady became so very angry at this absurd idea, that the King was\nquite alarmed, and humbly begged her pardon.\n\n\"We hear a great deal too much about this thing disagreeing, and that\nthing disagreeing,\" said the old lady, with the greatest contempt it was\npossible to express. \"Don't be greedy. I think you want it all yourself.\"\n\nThe King hung his head under this reproof, and said he wouldn't talk about\nthings disagreeing, any more.\n\n\"Be good, then,\" said the Fairy Grandmarina, \"and don't! When the\nbeautiful Princess Alicia consents to partake of the salmon--as I think\nshe will--you will find she will leave a fish-bone on her plate. Tell\nher to dry it, and to rub it, and to polish it till it shines like\nmother-of-pearl, and to take care of it as a present from me.\"\n\n\"Is that all?\" asked the King.\n\n\"Don't be impatient, sir,\" returned the Fairy Grandmarina, scolding him\nseverely. \"Don't catch people short, before they have done speaking. Just\nthe way with you grown-up persons. You are always doing it.\"\n\nThe King again hung his head, and said he wouldn't do so any more.\n\n\"Be good then,\" said the Fairy Grandmarina, \"and don't! Tell the Princess\nAlicia, with my love, that the fish-bone is a magic present which can only\nbe used once; but that it will bring her, that once, whatever she wishes\nfor, PROVIDED SHE WISHES FOR IT AT THE RIGHT TIME. That is the\nmessage. Take care of it.\"\n\n[Illustration: HOITY TOITY ME!]\n\nThe King was beginning, \"Might I ask the reason--?\" when the Fairy became\nabsolutely furious.\n\n\"_Will_ you be good, sir?\" she exclaimed, stamping her foot on the ground.\n\"The reason for this, and the reason for that, indeed! You are always\nwanting the reason. No reason. There! Hoity toity me! I am sick of your\ngrown-up reasons.\"\n\nThe King was extremely frightened by the old lady's flying into such a\npassion, and said he was very sorry to have offended her, and he wouldn't\nask for reasons any more.\n\n\"Be good then,\" said the old lady, \"and don't!\"\n\nWith those words, Grandmarina vanished, and the King went on and on and\non, till he came to the office. There he wrote and wrote and wrote, till\nit was time to go home again. Then he politely invited the Princess\nAlicia, as the Fairy had directed him, to partake of the salmon. And\nwhen she had enjoyed it very much, he saw the fish-bone on her plate, as\nthe Fairy had told him he would, and he delivered the Fairy's message, and\nthe Princess Alicia took care to dry the bone, and to rub it, and to\npolish it till it shone like mother-of-pearl.\n\n[Illustration: He saw the Fish-bone on her Plate]\n\nAnd so when the Queen was going to get up in the morning, she said, \"O,\ndear me, dear me; my head, my head!\" and then she fainted away.\n\nThe Princess Alicia, who happened to be looking in at the chamber-door,\nasking about breakfast, was very much alarmed when she saw her Royal Mamma\nin this state, and she rang the bell for Peggy, which was the name of the\nLord Chamberlain. But remembering where the smelling-bottle was, she\nclimbed on a chair and got it, and after that she climbed on another chair\nby the bedside and held the smelling-bottle to the Queen's nose, and after\nthat she jumped down and got some water, and after that she jumped up\nagain and wetted the Queen's forehead, and, in short, when the Lord\nChamberlain came in, that dear old woman said to the little Princess,\n\"What a Trot you are! I couldn't have done it better myself!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nBut that was not the worst of the good Queen's illness. O, no! She was\nvery ill indeed, for a long time. The Princess Alicia kept the seventeen\nyoung Princes and Princesses quiet, and dressed and undressed and danced\nthe baby, and made the kettle boil, and heated the soup, and swept the\nhearth, and poured out the medicine, and nursed the Queen, and did all\nthat ever she could, and was as busy busy busy, as busy could be. For\nthere were not many servants at that Palace, for three reasons; because\nthe King was short of money, because a rise in his office never seemed to\ncome, and because quarter day was so far off that it looked almost as far\noff and as little as one of the stars.\n\nBut on the morning when the Queen fainted away, where was the magic\nfish-bone? Why, there it was in the Princess Alicia's pocket. She had\nalmost taken it out to bring the Queen to life again, when she put it\nback, and looked for the smelling-bottle.\n\nAfter the Queen had come out of her swoon that morning, and was dozing,\nthe Princess Alicia hurried up-stairs to tell a most particular secret to\na most particularly confidential friend of hers, who was a Duchess. People\ndid suppose her to be a Doll; but she was really a Duchess, though nobody\nknew it except the Princess.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThis most particular secret was a secret about the magic fish-bone, the\nhistory of which was well known to the Duchess, because the Princess told\nher everything. The Princess kneeled down by the bed on which the Duchess\nwas lying, full-dressed and wide awake, and whispered the secret to her.\nThe Duchess smiled and nodded. People might have supposed that she never\nsmiled and nodded, but she often did, though nobody knew it except the\nPrincess.\n\nThen the Princess Alicia hurried downstairs again, to keep watch in the\nQueen's room. She often kept watch by herself in the Queen's room; but\nevery evening, while the illness lasted, she sat there watching with the\nKing. And every evening the King sat looking at her with a cross look,\nwondering why she never brought out the magic fish-bone. As often as she\nnoticed this, she ran up-stairs, whispered the secret to the Duchess over\nagain, and said to the Duchess besides, \"They think we children never have\na reason or a meaning!\" And the Duchess, though the most fashionable\nDuchess that ever was heard of, winked her eye.\n\n\"Alicia,\" said the King, one evening when she wished him Good Night.\n\n\"Yes, Papa.\"\n\n\"What is become of the magic fish-bone?\"\n\n\"In my pocket, Papa.\"\n\n\"I thought you had lost it?\"\n\n\"O, no, Papa.\"\n\n\"Or forgotten it?\"\n\n\"No, indeed, Papa.\"\n\nAnd so another time the dreadful little snapping pug-dog next door made a\nrush at one of the young Princes as he stood on the steps coming home from\nschool, and terrified him out of his wits and he put his hand through a\npane of glass, and bled bled bled. When the seventeen other young Princes\nand Princesses saw him bleed bleed bleed, they were terrified out of their\nwits too, and screamed themselves black in their seventeen faces all at\nonce. But the Princess Alicia put her hands over all their seventeen\nmouths, one after another, and persuaded them to be quiet because of the\nsick Queen. And then she put the wounded Prince's hand in a basin of fresh\ncold water, while they stared with their twice seventeen are thirty-four\nput down four and carry three eyes, and then she looked in the hand for\nbits of glass, and there were fortunately no bits of glass there. And\nthen she said to two chubby-legged Princes who were sturdy though small,\n\"Bring me in the Royal rag-bag; I must snip and stitch and cut and\ncontrive.\" So those two young Princes tugged at the Royal rag-bag and\nlugged it in, and the Princess Alicia sat down on the floor with a large\npair of scissors and a needle and thread, and snipped and stitched and\ncut and contrived, and made a bandage and put it on, and it fitted\nbeautifully, and so when it was all done she saw the King her Papa\nlooking on by the door.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Alicia.\"\n\n\"Yes, Papa.\"\n\n\"What have you been doing?\"\n\n\"Snipping stitching cutting and contriving, Papa.\"\n\n\"Where is the magic fish-bone?\"\n\n\"In my pocket, Papa.\"\n\n\"I thought you had lost it?\"\n\n\"O, no, Papa.\"\n\n\"Or forgotten it?\"\n\n\"No, indeed, Papa.\"\n\nAfter that, she ran up-stairs to the Duchess and told her what had passed,\nand told her the secret over again, and the Duchess shook her flaxen curls\nand laughed with her rosy lips.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nWell! and so another time the baby fell under the grate. The seventeen\nyoung Princes and Princesses were used to it, for they were almost always\nfalling under the grate or down the stairs, but the baby was not used to\nit yet, and it gave him a swelled face and a black eye. The way the poor\nlittle darling came to tumble was, that he slid out of the Princess\nAlicia's lap just as she was sitting in a great coarse apron that quite\nsmothered her, in front of the kitchen-fire, beginning to peel the turnips\nfor the broth for dinner; and the way she came to be doing that was, that\nthe King's cook had run away that morning with her own true love who was a\nvery tall but very tipsy soldier. Then, the seventeen young Princes and\nPrincesses, who cried at everything that happened, cried and roared. But\nthe Princess Alicia (who couldn't help crying a little herself) quietly\ncalled to them to be still, on account of not throwing back the Queen\nup-stairs, who was fast getting well, and said, \"Hold your tongues, you\nwicked little monkeys, every one of you, while I examine baby!\" Then she\nexamined baby, and found that he hadn't broken anything, and she held\ncold iron to his poor dear eye, and smoothed his poor dear face, and he\npresently fell asleep in her arms. Then, she said to the seventeen Princes\nand Princesses, \"I am afraid to lay him down yet, lest he should wake and\nfeel pain, be good, and you shall all be cooks.\" They jumped for joy when\nthey heard that, and began making themselves cooks' caps out of old\nnewspapers. So to one she gave the salt-box, and to one she gave the\nbarley, and to one she gave the herbs, and to one she gave the turnips,\nand to one she gave the carrots, and to one she gave the onions, and to\none she gave the spice-box, till they were all cooks, and all running\nabout at work, she sitting in the middle smothered in the great coarse\napron, nursing baby. By and by the broth was done, and the baby woke up\nsmiling like an angel, and was trusted to the sedatest Princess to hold,\nwhile the other Princes and Princesses were squeezed into a far-off corner\nto look at the Princess Alicia turning out the saucepan-full of broth,\nfor fear (as they were always getting into trouble) they should get\nsplashed and scalded. When the broth came tumbling out, steaming\nbeautifully, and smelling like a nosegay good to eat, they clapped their\nhands. That made the baby clap his hands; and that, and his looking as if\nhe had a comic toothache, made all the Princes and Princesses laugh. So\nthe Princess Alicia said, \"Laugh and be good, and after dinner we will\nmake him a nest on the floor in a corner, and he shall sit in his nest\nand see a dance of eighteen cooks.\" That delighted the young Princes and\nPrincesses, and they ate up all the broth, and washed up all the plates\nand dishes, and cleared away, and pushed the table into a corner, and\nthen they in their cooks' caps, and the Princess Alicia in the smothering\ncoarse apron that belonged to the cook that had run away with her own true\nlove that was the very tall but very tipsy soldier, danced a dance of\neighteen cooks before the angelic baby, who forgot his swelled face and\nhis black eye, and crowed with joy.\n\n[Illustration: The Dance of the Eighteen Cooks]\n\nAnd so then, once more the Princess Alicia saw King Watkins the First,\nher father, standing in the doorway looking on, and he said: \"What have\nyou been doing, Alicia?\"\n\n\"Cooking and contriving, Papa.\"\n\n\"What else have you been doing, Alicia?\"\n\n\"Keeping the children light-hearted, Papa.\"\n\n\"Where is the magic fish-bone, Alicia?\"\n\n\"In my pocket, Papa.\"\n\n\"I thought you had lost it?\"\n\n\"O, no, Papa.\"\n\n\"Or forgotten it?\"\n\n\"No, indeed, Papa.\"\n\nThe King then sighed so heavily, and seemed so low-spirited, and sat down\nso miserably, leaning his head upon his hand, and his elbow upon the\nkitchen table pushed away in the corner, that the seventeen Princes and\nPrincesses crept softly out of the kitchen, and left him alone with the\nPrincess Alicia and the angelic baby.\n\n\"What is the matter, Papa?\"\n\n\"I am dreadfully poor, my child.\"\n\n\"Have you no money at all, Papa?\"\n\n[Illustration: \"What is the matter, Papa?\"]\n\n\"None my child.\"\n\n\"Is there no way left of getting any, Papa?\"\n\n\"No way,\" said the King. \"I have tried very hard, and I have tried all\nways.\"\n\nWhen she heard those last words, the Princess Alicia began to put her hand\ninto the pocket where she kept the magic fish-bone.\n\n\"Papa,\" said she, \"when we have tried very hard, and tried all ways, we\nmust have done our very very best?\"\n\n\"No doubt, Alicia.\"\n\n\"When we have done our very very best, Papa, and that is not enough, then\nI think the right time must have come for asking help of others.\" This was\nthe very secret connected with the magic fish-bone, which she had found\nout for herself from the good fairy Grandmarina's words, and which she had\nso often whispered to her beautiful and fashionable friend the Duchess.\n\nSo she took out of her pocket the magic fish-bone that had been dried and\nrubbed and polished till it shone like mother-of-pearl; and she gave it\none little kiss and wished it was quarter day. And immediately it _was_\nquarter day; and the King's quarter's salary came rattling down the\nchimney, and bounced into the middle of the floor.\n\nBut this was not half of what happened, no not a quarter, for immediately\nafterwards the good fairy Grandmarina came riding in, in a carriage and\nfour (Peacocks), with Mr Pickles's boy up behind, dressed in silver and\ngold, with a cocked hat, powdered hair, pink silk stockings, a jewelled\ncane, and a nosegay. Down jumped Mr Pickles's boy with his cocked hat in\nhis hand and wonderfully polite (being entirely changed by enchantment),\nand handed Grandmarina out, and there she stood in her rich shot silk\nsmelling of dried lavender, fanning herself with a sparkling fan.\n\n\"Alicia, my dear,\" said this charming old Fairy, \"how do you do, I hope I\nsee you pretty well, give me a kiss.\"\n\nThe Princess Alicia embraced her, and then Grandmarina turned to the King,\nand said rather sharply:--\"Are you good?\"\n\n[Illustration: \"Alicia, my dear ... how do you do?\"]\n\nThe King said he hoped so.\n\n\"I suppose you know the reason, _now_, why my god-Daughter here,\" kissing\nthe Princess again, \"did not apply to the fish-bone sooner?\" said the\nFairy.\n\nThe King made her a shy bow.\n\n\"Ah! but you didn't _then_!\" said the Fairy.\n\nThe King made her a shyer bow.\n\n\"Any more reasons to ask for?\" said the Fairy.\n\nThe King said no, and he was very sorry.\n\n\"Be good then,\" said the Fairy, \"and live happy ever afterwards.\"\n\nThen, Grandmarina waved her fan, and the Queen came in most splendidly\ndressed, and the seventeen young Princes and Princesses, no longer grown\nout of their clothes, came in newly fitted out from top to toe, with tucks\nin everything to admit of its being let out. After that, the Fairy tapped\nthe Princess Alicia with her fan, and the smothering coarse apron flew\naway, and she appeared exquisitely dressed, like a little Bride, with\na wreath of orange-flowers and a silver veil. After that, the kitchen\ndresser changed of itself into a wardrobe, made of beautiful woods and\ngold and looking glass, which was full of dresses of all sorts, all for\nher and all exactly fitting her. After that, the angelic baby came in,\nrunning alone, with his face and eye not a bit the worse but much the\nbetter. Then, Grandmarina begged to be introduced to the Duchess, and,\nwhen the Duchess was brought down many compliments passed between them.\n\nA little whispering took place between the Fairy and the Duchess, and\nthen the Fairy said out loud, \"Yes. I thought she would have told you.\"\nGrandmarina then turned to the King and Queen, and said, \"We are going\nin search of Prince Certainpersonio. The pleasure of your company is\nrequested at church in half an hour precisely.\" So she and the Princess\nAlicia got into the carriage, and Mr Pickles's boy handed in the Duchess\nwho sat by herself on the opposite seat, and then Mr Pickles's boy put up\nthe steps and got up behind, and the Peacocks flew away with their tails\nspread.\n\n[Illustration: She appeared exquisitely dressed, like a little Bride]\n\nPrince Certainpersonio was sitting by himself, eating barley-sugar\nand waiting to be ninety. When he saw the Peacocks followed by the\ncarriage, coming in at the window, it immediately occurred to him that\nsomething uncommon was going to happen.\n\n\"Prince,\" said Grandmarina, \"I bring you your Bride.\"\n\nThe moment the Fairy said those words, Prince Certainpersonio's face left\noff being stickey, and his jacket and corduroys changed to peach-bloom\nvelvet, and his hair curled, and a cap and feather flew in like a bird and\nsettled on his head. He got into the carriage by the Fairy's invitation,\nand there he renewed his acquaintance with the Duchess, whom he had seen\nbefore.\n\nIn the church were the Prince's relations and friends, and the Princess\nAlicia's relations and friends, and the seventeen Princes and Princesses,\nand the baby, and a crowd of the neighbours. The marriage was beautiful\nbeyond expression. The Duchess was bridesmaid, and beheld the ceremony\nfrom the pulpit where she was supported by the cushion of the desk.\n\nGrandmarina gave a magnificent wedding feast afterwards, in which there\nwas everything and more to eat, and everything and more to drink. The\nwedding cake was delicately ornamented with white satin ribbons, frosted\nsilver and white lilies, and was forty-two yards round.\n\nWhen Grandmarina had drunk her love to the young couple, and Prince\nCertainpersonio had made a speech, and everybody had cried Hip hip hip\nhurrah! Grandmarina announced to the King and Queen that in future there\nwould be eight quarter days in every year, except in leap year, when there\nwould be ten. She then turned to Certainpersonio and Alicia, and said, \"My\ndears, you will have thirty-five children, and they will all be good and\nbeautiful. Seventeen of your children will be boys, and eighteen will be\ngirls. The hair of the whole of your children will curl naturally. They\nwill never have the measles, and will have recovered from the\nwhooping-cough before being born.\"\n\nOn hearing such good news, everybody cried out \"Hip hip hip hurrah!\"\nagain.\n\n\"It only remains,\" said Grandmarina in conclusion, \"to make an end of the\nfish-bone.\"\n\nSo she took it from the hand of the Princess Alicia, and it instantly flew\ndown the throat of the dreadful little snapping pug-dog next door and\nchoked him, and he expired in convulsions.\n\n\nTHE END\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n                *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nPRINTED AT THE ARDEN PRESS, LETCHWORTH, ENGLAND.\n\nFIRST IMPRESSION, TWELVE THOUSAND COPIES, SEPT. MCMXI:\nSECOND IMPRESSION, TWELVE THOUSAND COPIES, DEC. MCMXI","title":"The Magic Fishbone: A Holiday Romance from the Pen of Miss Alice Rainbird, Aged 7","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":3938}