Letter to a Little Princess
Dear Princess,
Let me tell you about the Me-me fly which brought the blaming blight to the King’s palace. When the little green fly first entered Princess Precious’ room she thought it was beautiful and listened to its buzz all evening. But the next morning the first signs of the blight appeared. “My blankets were scratchy,” Precious complained. “It was Joy’s fault, because she knows I hate wool blankets, and she put one on my bed.”
Now the truth of the matter was that Precious had seen the bright blue blanket and told Joy that she wanted it. But the blaming blight was like a foggy cloud over her eyes. Princess Precious couldn’t see her own faults. No, not at all!
When Precious picked up a book, Princess Helpful hurried by and knocked it out of her hand. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking!” Helpful said. Precious frowned, and then stuck out her foot and tripped Helpful as she ran by with the duster. “Better look where you’re going!” she said. Helpful went off muttering, and soon the blight was spreading.
At lunch, Princess Praise burnt the biscuits.
“What did you ruin them for?” Precious asked crossly.
“I didn’t, the oven did,” Praise said, without her usual smile.
“You cooked them, didn’t you?” Precious argued.
“And who stuck her foot out to trip me?” said Helpful.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” Precious answered. “Why don’t you quit running into things?”
“All you do is grumble,” Praise returned.
So they ate a dismal meal to the buzz of the Me-me fly.
The afternoon wasn’t any better, and by four o’clock Precious felt miserable. “I’m tired of being blamed for everything,” she complained to Princess Careful. “I wasn’t the one that left the library a mess and I’m not going to clean it.” With that she marched off to the Courtroom. It was a good thing that she told King Jesus, for I don’t know how this story would have ended if she didn’t.
The blight was so bad that even the King’s royal high throne didn’t slow her down. “Would you make Helpful behave?” she began, and let the whole trouble come out in a rush. “She said that I made the mess, and it isn’t true!” Precious looked up, expecting to see the King’s kind face and hear His comforting words. But King Jesus didn’t smile.
Precious was about to speak, but He reached out His hand and stopped her. “Be still, my daughter,” He said. It wasn’t the words that stopped her so much, but the hand. She felt the scar of the nail print and fresh tears came to her eyes as she kissed it. They blamed You when You hadn’t done anything wrong, either, she thought. But the thought pricked her inside. Who made Him suffer? Aren’t you to blame?
Then Precious saw something she hadn’t noticed before. It was the Me-me fly clinging with its shiny green wings to her hand. She tried to shake it off, but it only clung tighter and began buzzing. “Oh, will you get it off me?” she pleaded.
“What is the trouble, Precious?” King Jesus looked at her so earnestly that Precious hung her head. She had been the one to blame all along. When Precious looked down at the Me-me fly again, she saw that it had stung His hand. “Oh, I am sorry!” she cried, falling to her knees. “It is all my fault—just see what I have done!”
“If you have come for yourself, I can help you indeed,” King Jesus said. In a moment the foggy blight was gone and the green fly had buzzed off, leaving a green stain on her hand. “That will fade as you learn to prefer others,” He told her.
“Thank you,” Princess Precious said humbly. “I will go to clean the library now.”
With much love,
Aunt Faith
Prince Valiant is doing his work first because he knows that is the right thing to do.
