Twelve Terribly Active Princesses Who Were Not Exactly Dancing
Chapter One Once upon a time in a kingdom much farther away from here than you would think lived a King and Queen and their twelve daughters Albertina Belinda Constantina Daniela Edwina the twins Francesca and Frederica Gabriella Henrietta Isabella Josefina and Regina But all was not well in the farther away than you would think kingdom The King and Queen had become very worried about their daughters Every morning the princesses beautiful shoes would be covered in mud and worn to shreds The bloomers they wore beneath their dresses would have tears in the knees Their hair ribbons would be stained with sweat And the twelve princesses would be exhausted They fell asleep at breakfast and at lessons and while practicing instruments It got so bad you could find a sleeping princess just about anywhere in the castle
One evening at a fancy state dinner Gabriella fell asleep in her soup The King was furious That night the King spoke to the princesses My dearest daughters he began It’s bad enough that every day we have to replace twelve pairs of silk shoes and twelve pairs of bloomers which isn’t cheap And it’s bad enough that you fall asleep during lessons and servants trip over you as you sleep in the halls But snoring in your soup is the LAST STRAW He looked at the bedroom the princesses shared It had been the second-best ballroom so it didn’t just fit twelve beds It fit twelve beds twelve bureaus twelve armoires twelve mirrors twelve bookshelves twelve soft chairs for reading twelve straight chairs for posture and sewing twelve easels twelve desks for writing twelve music stands four flutes three mandolins two violins one viola one cello and one hammered dulcimer Plus the princesses clothes brushes ribbons books quills embroidery hoops and musical scores
Like many fathers before him and many after the King believed healthy young people need sleep and his daughters bedroom or rather the ex second-best ballroom was too enjoyable Tonight he announced you will all sleep in the third-best bedroom on the second floor of the east wing The servants moved the twelve bedsteads and the twelve mattresses and the eleven feather beds and Daniela’s hypoallergenic cotton-filled bed and the twelve quilts and the twenty-four pillows to the third-best bedroom on the second floor of the east wing And they arranged and rearranged until it fit The princesses kissed their parents goodnight 6
But when the princesses ruined their shoes again the King had them moved to the storage room down the corridor from the scullery The storage room down the corridor from the scullery had been built to keep rats and imps out and it would keep the princesses in so they would have no way to ruin their shoes The servants emptied the storage room down the corridor from the scullery And after much shoving they fit all twelve bedsteads twelve mattresses eleven feather beds one hypoallergenic cotton-filled bed twelve quilts and twenty-four pillows into the storage room The beds were jammed together so you had to walk across them to get inside 7
