They took no one into their secret, but the old wise man went to the King and explained that the little Prince was cured, but that he must not be interfered with in any way and that anything he wanted he must have and anything he wanted any one to do he must do, else he would lapse into ahardheartedoldgoodfornothing—which so frightened the King that he agreed to do whatever the little Prince demanded.
And the first thing he demanded was that people should stop bobbing and bowing in the palace. He said it made him dizzy; so they stopped. And next, he invited his father to play ball, which the King, with many misgivings, did. But soon he became so interested in the game that he called for all the Prime Ministers and big-wigs to join in the game and they went scally-walloping all over the lawns like a party of wild Indians. of course, they were only doing it to keep the little Prince from lapsing into ahardheartedoldgoodfornothing—they were careful to explain this to the rest of the court.
The little Prince insisted upon playing croquet and checkors with his mother, the Queen, and that gentle dame grew so excited over the game that she insisted upon playing with the other Ladies of the court and all of them sighed less and laughed more. Indeed, with the Prince demanding first this and then that, they were kept upon the jump and had no time to talk about each other or sigh because they were not Kings and Queens. There were dances on the lawn and picnics in the woods and fishing parties on the river and fireworks and all manner of excitements. Gradually they forgot that the little Prince might lapse into ahardheartedoldgoodfornothing and did the things that he asked, because they wanted to do them, and in all the country roundabout there was not so delighted a company. Indeed, one would never have guessed that they were Kings, Queens, Dukes, Duchesses and such if they had not worn their silks and satins and crowns on Saturdays just for the looks of the thing. And that is all I know of the story!
