The Princess and the Bicycle

Once upon a time, a Princess and her family, the King, Queen, and Prince, went on holiday to the Kingdom of Maine. They had a wonderful time hiking, boating, watching whales, and shopping for lobster souvenirs in the local shops. The Princess was dearly hoping to see a moose.

Unfortunately, there lived in the village a greedy, evil troll who rode a bicycle and loved nothing better than to have "accidents" and sue people for damages. When the troll heard that the King and his family were coming to town, the troll's eyes lit up. He rubbed his hands together and said to himself, "Now my bicycle and I will make enough money to retire on!"

The Princess was a bright and happy child, but she had one flaw: she never remembered to look both ways before crossing the street. When she saw something attractive on the other side of the street, she simply ran toward it. It was a good thing the Princess had a Safety Fairy protecting her!


In fact, on the second day of the royal family's holiday, the Princess came out of a shop and saw a lovely dog across the street. She immediately ran toward the dog. While she was running across the street, the evil troll appeared on his bicycle and tried to collide with the Princess! But at that moment, the Safety Fairy saw what was happening and threw her wand into the troll's bicycle spokes. The troll crashed without touching the Princess. He could not blame his accident on the royal family.

The next day, the Princess spotted a candy shop across the street and ran toward it. Again the troll appeared and tried to run her down, and again the Safety Fairy stopped him.

On their last night in the village, the family ate at a seafood restaurant. By the end of the meal, the little prince had eaten too many fried clams. He became very ill. The Princess ran across the street to the pharmacy to get some medicine for him. Unfortunately, while she was crossing the street, the Safety Fairy was back in the restaurant caring for the little sick prince. When the evil troll appeared on his bicycle, the Fairy could not protect the Princess! The troll collided with the Princess, knocking her to the ground and sailing over his own handlebars and right into the side of a tree.

After the accident, and ambulance came and took the Princess to the hospital. Fortunately, she was not badly hurt. However, the evil troll filed a lawsuit against the King for allowing his daughter to run across the street in a dangerous way. It looked like he was going to win millions of dollars from the royal family until the Safety Fairy looked up the city driving regulations. She discovered that the evil troll had broken a law by not attaching a headlamp to his bicycle. Because the accident had occurred at night, he was at fault!

So the family returned to their kingdom, healthy and happy with their royal money intact, and they all lived happily ever after. Except for the troll, whose bicycle was taken away, forcing him to walk everywhere for the rest of his life.