The Princess' New Clothes

Well, when I wrote yesterday, we had a new resident. A self-proclaimed Princess who has apparently been quietly hiding among us. She might have revealed herself sooner had our person not mistaken her for a school girl and put her in the academy here. After casting off her school girl uniform yesterday (leaving her rather bare), she refused to tell us her name until she had some clothes befitting her station.

Ms. Merriweather called our person to tell her we had a fashion emergency of the worst kind on our hands. Our person suggested that our little nameless Princess simply put her school uniform back on until she had time to make her more suitable clothes....she mentioned something about having to clean the basement.

Ms. Merriweather pointed out no one ever goes in the basement to see it, however everyone was now seeing the rather bare Princess. She suggested to our person that the Princess needed to take priority over the basement. The little Princess had began to rather pout at this point. She didn't look too pleased with our person at all.

Ms. Merriweather also reminded our person that had she spent more time with the Princess when she first arrived here, instead of making such a hasty judgment about her nature and sticking her in an academy where she didn't belong, we wouldn't be having this dilemma.

With that, our person caved in to Ms. Merriweather's request rather quickly (I think she was looking for an excuse to postpone cleaning anyway). I also think she did feel rather guilty about misjudging the Princess.

So, the Princess and our person spent the day together. The Princess requested a dress of the finest spider web silk and perhaps a few morning dew drops. Unfortunately, the only thing we have on hand is gingham and calico. Plus, our person is afraid of spiders so I don't see spider web silk ever happening. But, our person did what she could with what was available, promising the Princess she would order some small bits of silk (made by silk worms, not spiders) to make up for misjudging her initially. The Princess perked up at that and seemed to warm up to our person a bit (she had seemed to be holding a bit of a grudge).

Our person let the Princess select some fabric...she chose a nice tiny rose print. To make up for the lack of silk, our person at least found some silk ribbon for a sash and hair bow.

The Princess proclaimed the dress "good enough for now, until better can be found." She finally told us her name...Princess Rosina Fayette. Her first name means "little rose" and her second name means "little fairy". I suppose she is a little rose fairy of some sort. We asked our resident fairies, Nim and Nissa, if they had ever heard of the princess. They hadn't, but they explained that fairy Princesses were quite common. Rosina Fayette was most likely simply the princess of a backyard rose garden somewhere who had been displaced. Sometimes people neglect or do away with such gardens, leaving the resident fairy homeless....or in this case, realmless. Nim and Nissa also suggested we avoid mentioning the fact that we knew the Princess was most likely only minor displaced royalty, since fairy Princesses are quite touchy about that sort of thing. They think she has refused to speak the last few years because she was likely insulted our person couldn't tell she was a Princess right away.

The Princess began making herself at home. She seemed to like Ms. Hickory, but didn't care too much for the stove. I think she was afraid she might have to actually use it someday. Ms. Hickory quickly told the Princess that the stove was her property and she was the cook of the house. Rosina Fayette seemed greatly relieved at that. I don't think kitchen chores are very appealing to our Princess.
Rosina Fayette appeared to become fond of Merilwen quite quickly. Ms. Merriweather had already impressed her for standing up to our person for her rights to a new dress and a proper place in the household.

Lily and Mehitabel seemed to take to the Princess quite readily. And, the Princess seemed to take to the piano in the house quite readily. She explained to us she is musically gifted and quite talented at entertaining foreign dignataries. At least we don't have to worry about Princess Rosina Fayette not thinking highly enough of herself.

It will be interesting to see her start travelling with our person a bit. The Princess is hoping to tour some exotic and far off human lands. We thought we would wait a bit before explaining the most exotic place she is likely to see most days is our person's work place down the road....

Hitty Rowan