Click here to print. This literature workbook is six pages in length, full of questions and activities.

"ONCE upon a time there lived a great King, whose name was Mesmerian, and who was also a powerful enchanter. He was most anxious to have a son to succeed him on his throne, and when the fairies sent him twelve lovely little daughters, he got in a great rage, and throwing them into a magic sleep he locked them all up in a big cupboard in an old palace. At least, all but the eldest Princess, Ida, who was so beautiful that even his hard heart relented, though he sent her to the same palace, with an old deaf and dumb woman to take charge of her. Then he enchanted the palace, so that though it stood in the midst of the city no one remembered it, and not a sound was heard in it, or its gardens, but the songs of the birds, and the clear little voice of Princess Ida.

"Now, of course, Princess Ida knew nothing about her little sisters. She had to play all alone in the garden, and to read the old books in the library, and to tend her flowers; and she often longed for a companion. But no one came, and only once a year her Father paid her a visit. She was always giad to see him, though he rather frightened her, and moreover he made her curious; because every time he always sent her away into the garden, while he went and peeped into a cupboard which was kept locked. She knew he went, because once she followed him, and saw him put a key in the lock, but when he turned and saw her he was so angry that it made..."