Helen Hunt Jackson

“ Glancing fearfully in all directions, she rolled the golden silk sheet tightly around her, and flew, rather than ran, across the floor and took hold of the handle of one of the glass doors. Alas, it was locked. She tried another, another; all were locked. In despair she turned to fly back to her bedroom, when suddenly she spied on the floor, in a corner close by the case where hung her beautiful white satin dress, a little heap of what looked like brown rags. She darted toward it, snatched it from the floor, and in a second more was safe back in her room. It was her own old stuff gown. ”

“ Yes, always the same, One day just like another; all whirl and dance from morning till night, and new people coming and going all the time, and spiders most of all. You can't think how fast brooms wear out in this Court! ”

“ Is it only for one day, then?"
"Only for one day," they all replied.
"And always after that do you have to kill spiders?" she cried.
"Yes; that or nothing," they said. "You see it is a great deal of work to keep all the rooms in this Court clean."
"Isn't it very dull work to kill spiders?" ”

“ SHE was She belonged to the people, the common people. Her parents were poor, and could not buy any wedding trousseau for her. But that did not make any difference. A carriage was sent from the Court for her, and she was carried away "just as she was," in her stuff gown the gown the Prince first saw her in. He liked her best in that, he said; and, moreover, what odds did it make about clothes? Were there not rooms upon rooms in the palace, full of the most superb clothes for Princes' Sweethearts? ”