Princess Samuel

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a little girl whose parents, sadly, didn’t want a little girl; they wanted a little boy but then because they couldn’t have another child they decided, instead, that they would raise the little girl as a boy and so they gave her a boy’s name; Samuel and they dressed her as a little boy in a suit with trousers instead of a skirt, cut her hair short like a boys hair and gave her boys toys to play with, like soldiers and sailing ships and a wooden sword and wooden cavalry horse to ride on and they wouldn’t let her do any girlish things like dancing or picking wild flowers or sewing either; they insisted that she must do sports like football and learn to box and fence .

“And one day”, they said to Samuel, “Who knows? You may have a brilliant career or even be a dashing hero and travel all round the world having adventures”.

But though Samuel smiled at her parents she wasn’t really happy because she liked being a girl and didn’t want to be a boy and secretly, when no one else was around, she would call herself Samantha and dream of being able to wear a pretty dress and do girlish things.  When she should have been practicing football or fencing she would be dancing instead and instead of playing war games she would make little dresses for her soldiers and play with them like dolls and she would braid the hair of her wooden cavalry horse as well and put ribbons in it and she didn’t want to have a brilliant career either or be a dashing hero, not really. What she really wanted was to be a princess and be married to a handsome prince.

But then, one day, as Samuel was riding through the forest she passed by a tall dark tower, a sleeping jet black dragon lying coiled round it, in which a young very handsome man was being held prisoner.

“Please young man”, the Prince begged Samuel, thinking because of her clothes that she was a man, “Please, help me. I can’t escape by myself but if you save me from this tower, I promise,  I shall reward you in any way you wish, for I am a very wealthy and powerful prince”.

“Do you really promise”, asked Samuel, “To give me anything that I ask if I help you?”.

“Yes”, said the Prince, “I swear upon my honour as a Prince”.

And so Samuel, drawing her sword and getting off of her horse went over to the sleeping dragon.

And she saw that, round the sleeping dragons neck was a collar upon which was written, “No man can slay this dragon”.

“Well, I am not a man”, said Samuel and then plunging her sword into the sleeping dragons heart she killed it.

But then she went up to the door of the tower and in front of the door was a large boulder with the words, “No man can move this boulder” etched into it.

“Well I am not a man”, she said and she pushed the boulder aside as easily as if it were a pebble.

Then she went up a winding staircase to the room where the prince was being held and in front of the door of his cell was a huge, one eyed ogre with a large axe in his hand.

“No man shall pass”, it growled, gruffly.

“But I am not a man”, said Samuel and fighting the ogre with her sword, struck the monster down easily.

Then, taking a key from the dead ogre, she opened the door of the princes cell and let him free.

“Oh thank you”, said the Prince, “And you will not regret this. Just as I promised, whatever reward you name, young man, it shall be yours”.

“Then marry me”, said Samuel.

“Marry you?”, asked the Prince, surprised, “But you’re a man?”.

“I’m not a man”, said Samuel taking off her suit of armour, “I’m a woman. Marry me, please and make me your princess”.

And so the Prince, because he was a man of his word, married Samuel who became Princess Samantha and when she became a Princess it meant that she could grow her hair long and wear pretty dresses and go to balls and dance and do all the things she had always dreamed of doing and then she and the prince both lived happily ever after.