Read "The Light Princess" by George MacDonald online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Meantime, notwithstanding awkward occurrences, and griefs that she brought upon her parents, the little princess laughed and grew -- not fat, but plump and tall. She reached the age of seventeen, without having fallen into any worse scrape than a chimney; by rescuing her from which, a little bird-nesting urchin got fame and a black face. Nor, thoughtless as she was, had she committed anything worse than laughter at everybody and everything that came in her way. When she was told, for the sake of experiment, that General Clanrunfort was cut to pieces with all his troops, she laughed; when she heard that the enemy was on his way to besiege her papa's capital, she laughed hugely; but when she was told that the city would certainly be abandoned to the mercy of the enemy's soldiery -- why, then she laughed immoderately. She never could be brought to see the serious side of anything. When her mother cried, she said, --
"What queer faces mamma makes! And she squeezes water out of her cheeks? Funny mamma!"