THE SLEEPING BEAUTY.
In the forest dark and grey,
The sad princess sleepeth still,
Until Love shall find a way
To release her fettered will.
Mildred was sitting on a low chair before the fire. She was all alone in the cosy sitting room. Her long curls drooped over the page she was reading and so absorbed was she in the fairy tale that she did not hear her big sister Edith enter the room. Edith stole up softly behind her small sister and bent over to see what she was reading. Then she said, stroking the bright hair:
" 'Sleeping Beauty' is very absorbing, isn't it, dearie?"
Mildred looked up with flushed cheeks and very bright eyes and answered:
"Oh, it's just too lovely! How I wish that I could have seen the forest and the dear Princess asleep, and then watched when the Prince came and wakened her!"
"So you think the story a true one, do you?"
"Well, sister, it seems as though it might have happened sometime, do not you think so? It is so beautiful it ought to be true."
"It is true, dearie, but not, perhaps, in the way you suppose. That is, I do not think that there ever was actually a princess who was charmed to sleep for a hundred years and then waked by the kiss of a prince."
Mildred's face grew thoughtful as she looked at her elder sister. "Dear Edith, I wish you would tell me exactly what you mean. How can a story be true and yet not be true?"
"Little sister, do not puzzle your brains so, and I will tell you what I think about the story of 'Sleeping Beauty.' You have heard of an allegory, have you not?"
"Oh, yes, I know! It's a story within a story."
"That is it, exactly. But it is more. If it is a true allegory it teaches the one who reads it something wise and beautiful, something that has to be searched for beneath the words. You might say that the truth in an allegorical story is like the perfume of a red rose. The outside story is like the rose, beautiful and full of color, while the real truth of the story is like the perfume of the rose, hidden, yet most lovely of all."
"I believe I understand what you mean, sister; but tell me, do you see allegories in my fairy book?"
"Yes, especially in the story you have just finished."
"Oh, please tell me, it will make 'Sleeping Beauty' so much more interesting."
"But perhaps you will think my explanation very dry?"
"Indeed, I will not, dear Edith. I would love to learn something true from my stories."
"Well, then, little sister, it seems to me that the story of the Sleeping Beauty is just a beautiful way of telling us about the soul. That is, the Princess is our Soul, the very inside of us, you know, dearie, that which is always whispering to us to do the noblest thing. When the Princess is enchanted it means that the soul is very ignorant, or that it has done wrong, perhaps because it did not know any better, and so it falls asleep. Then it needs a messenger from the Great Soul to wake it up. Do you understand?"
"I think that I do, Edith. Tell me, who is the messenger?"
"The messenger is the Prince."
"And what does it mean when he wakes the Princess?"
"You remember he wakes her with a kiss. This means Love. Because it is Love that helps the Soul more than anything else in the world. Very often a poor soul who has been unhappy and almost helpless is made happy and brave again by a loving word or some kind action. Did you know that even a little girl can wake the Sleeping Beauty?"
"What do you mean, Edith?"
"Each one of us, even the youngest, can be a messenger from the Great Soul, a Prince who wakes up the Sleeping Beauty. For everywhere there are beautiful Princesses, the souls of boys and girls, of men and women, who are fast asleep. They are bound by the spells of hatred, or selfishness, or ignorance. And the one who wishes to wake such a soul may do it by the magic power of unselfish love. Sometimes we have to try many, many times before we succeed in helping another, but if we have patience and keep persevering, we will surely succeed at last in waking the sleeping soul."
"Thank you, Edith, for telling me about the real Sleeping Beauty. I understand just what you mean, I think. But do you suppose that even I could find a Princess bound by a spell and wake her up?"
"Why, of course you can, little sister. Take, for instance, Mary Owens at your own school. You have often told me of how cross and disagreeable she was and how none of the girls liked her. Have you ever tried to be friends with her?"
"No, because she has been cross to some of the girls when they tried to be pleasant. She never plays in our games and she never talks with us. I think she fancies that the girls look down upon her because she is so very poor, but I am sure I never thought about it!"
"Yes, but you cannot know how much unkindness may have been shown her by others. She must have had a very unhappy life to be so shut up and so unfriendly. She is ugly and awkward you say, and perhaps she feels that she is different from the other girls and it makes her unhappy."
"I never thought of that!"
"Well, Mildred, I think that Mary Owens is a Sleeping Princess, and I believe that you may be the one to wake her and make her happy like other girls."
"Oh, dear Edith, I know what you mean, and I will try! Will it not be nice to become friends with her and to try by being loving and unselfish to wake up the sleeping soul? I am sure I can do a lot to help her and I am going to think of her as the Sleeping Beauty. Think of knowing a real Princess! And she will never guess that I am not really just little Mildred Lawrenee, but a grand Prince, come to rescue the Sleeping Beauty!"
Mildred clasped her hands and looked into the bright grate fire as though she saw in the flames beautiful pictures of brave princes going to the rescue of spellbound princesses. And the big sister sat beside her saying never a word, but thinking of how much a little child can do to make the world more beautiful if she will use the magic power of Love.
All about us beauty lies,
Sleeping in the souls of men;
At a loving touch to rise,
Never to be bound again.