The Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon

everybody kissed the trees and ran away, but I forgot to kiss my peach-tree, Giacomo, so I came back and brought Saint Anthony to protect her, and then I kissed her and it was so hot I was frightened, but the little girl said, “Don’t be afraid, Marietta, the King of the Mountains will go back if only I go back with him, and I will go back because you came back to kiss me, so go to sleep, go to sleep, Marietta, don’t be afraid.” So I did go to sleep, and where is the King of the Mountain?’
    Giacomo said, ‘He has gone back, Marietta,’ and he hugged her close and looked at Lucia over her head. And the old woman looked at him and at Marietta, and at the peach-tree and the mountain, and she mumbled, ‘It may be so, it may be so, who knows?’

WESTWOODS

I
    As the young King of Workaday finished writing the last word of his poem, Selina the Housemaid knocked on the door.
    â€˜What is it, Selina?’ called the King impatiently.
    â€˜Your Ministers want you,’ said Selina.
    â€˜What for?’ said the King.
    â€˜They didn’t tell me,’ said Selina.
    â€˜I’m busy writing,’ said the King.
    â€˜At once, they said,’ said Selina.
    â€˜Well, go and tell them—’
    â€˜I’ve got my stairs to do.’
    The King groaned, put down his pen, and came out.
    As he went downstairs Selina said, ‘While you’re seeing the Ministers, I could do your room, I suppose.’
    â€˜Yes, but don’t touch the desk, please . I always have to tell you.’
    Selina only said, ‘Oh, all right. Mind the stair-rods.’
    â€˜How can I? They aren’t there.’
    â€˜That’s why,’ said Selina.
    â€˜Sometimes I think Selina has no sense,’ said the young King to himself; and he wondered, as he often did, whether he oughtn’t to give her notice. Then he remembered, as he always did, that she was a Waif and Stray, who had been found at the age of one month on the steps of the Orphanage, where they had brought her up and trained her for service. When she was fourteen, she had come to the palace with a tin box of clothes, and there she had been for the last five years, working her way up from the Scullery to the Best Bedrooms. If the King gave her notice she would never get another place, and would have to go back to the Orphanage for the rest of her life; so he gave her a cross look instead, and trod carefully down the stair-rod-less stair-carpet to the Stateroom.
    The Kingdom of Workaday wanted a Queen, and his Ministers had come in a body to tell the young King so. And of course, said they, she must be a Princess.
    â€˜What Princesses are there?’ asked the young King, whose name was John, because, as the old King his father said when he was born, as a name John had always worked well, and no nonsense about it. They did not believe in nonsense in Workaday, and they kept their noses so close to their jobs that they couldn’t see anything beyond them. But they did their jobs very thoroughly; and it was part of the Ministers’ job to see that their King married a Princess, and part of the King’s job to marry her. John had been brought up to understand this, so he made no fuss when it came to the point, and just asked:
    â€˜What Princesses are there?’
    The Prime Minister consulted his list.
    â€˜There is the Princess of Northmountains, the country which lies to the top of Workaday on the map. And there is the Princess of Southlands, which lies at the bottom. And there is the Princess of Eastmarshes, which lies on the righthand side. Your Majesty might woo any of these.’
    â€˜And what about Westwoods, that lies on the left?’ asked John. ‘Is there no Princess of the West?’
    The Ministers looked serious. ‘We do not know, your Majesty, what lies in the West, for no one within man’s memory has ever passed the fence that stands between us and the country beyond. For all