Blue American Fairy Tale - Summer Fairy Tale

Author: (USA) Ruth Soyer, Rote Johnson, Sosu / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features:
The Flea on the King’s Body
Once upon a time, in Spain, there was a king who loved to play jokes and enjoy riddles. One day, as the steward was dressing the king, a flea that had been hiding in the clothes jumped out and landed on the king. The king quickly caught the flea and laughed, “Ouch! A big flea! Has anyone ever heard of a flea on a king? It’s so amusing! Hmm, it mustn’t be an ordinary flea—after all, my steward, since it jumped onto the king, it must be a noble flea. We mustn’t be rude to it! My steward, what should we do?”
“A flea—Your Majesty, do whatever you wish with it.” The steward was a serious man and never told jokes to the king.
“I’ve got it!” The king came up with an idea himself and laughed as he said to the steward, “I’ll put this flea in a cage and raise it, feeding it a lot of food until it grows as big as a cow! Then, I’ll kill it and use its skin to make a drum. My daughter Beatrice will dance with this drum. If any of Beatrice’s suitors can guess that it’s a drum made from a flea’s skin, I’ll marry the princess to him. This is truly a clever joke, worthy of a king’s status! Let’s call this flea Philip.”
The steward thought the king was completely mad, but he didn’t dare to disobey the king, so he did as the king wished and prepared a home for Philip.
A month later, the king visited the cage and found that Philip had grown as big as a cat. By the third month, it had become as big as a calf. P1-3