8. Try a Drop of Water.

Perhaps the best thing for the princess would have been to fall in love. But how a princess who had no gravity could fall into anything is a difficulty—perhaps THE difficulty.

As for her own feelings on the subject, she did not even know that there was such a beehive of honey and stings to be fallen into. But now I come to mention another curious fact about her.

The palace was built on the shores of the loveliest lake in the world; and the princess loved this lake more than father or mother. The root of this preference no doubt, although the princess did not recognise it as such, was, that the moment she got into it, she recovered the natural right of which she had been so wickedly deprived—namely, gravity. Whether this was owing to the fact that water had been employed as the means of conveying the injury, I do not know. But it is certain that she could swim and dive like the duck that her old nurse said she was. The manner in which this alleviation of her misfortune was discovered was as follows.

One summer evening, during the carnival of the country, she had been taken upon the lake by the king and queen, in the royal barge.

They were accompanied by many of the courtiers in a fleet of little boats. In the middle of the lake she wanted to get into the lord chancellor's barge, for his daughter, who was a great favourite with her, was in it with her father.

Now though the old king rarely condescended to make light of his misfortune, yet, Happening on this occasion to be in a particularly good humour, as the barges approached each other, he caught up the princess to throw her into the chancellor's barge. He lost his balance, however, and, dropping into the bottom of the barge, lost his hold of his daughter; not, however, before imparting to her the downward tendency of his own person, though in a somewhat different direction; for, as the king fell into the boat, she fell into the water. With a burst of delighted laughter she disappeared in the lake. A cry of horror ascended from the boats. They had never seen the princess go down before. Half the men were under water in a moment; but they had all, one after another, come up to the surface again for breath, when—tinkle, tinkle, babble, and gush! came the princess's laugh over the water from far away.

8.试试一滴水

对于公主来说，最美妙的事情莫过于坠入爱河。但是对于这样一个没有重力的公主来说，坠入任何事情都有点麻烦，恐怕还不是一点点麻烦。

至于公主本人在这一方面的感觉呢，她完全不知道还有这样一种跌入满是蜜和刺的蜂巢般的境地。但是，我现在首先要来说说关于公主的另一件有趣的事情。

王国的宫殿建在一个世上最可爱的湖的湖滨，公主喜欢这个湖要远远超过喜欢她的父王和母后。尽管公主并没有意识到，但她如此热爱自然完全是因为她一旦跃入湖中，所有被邪恶夺走的自然权利就都回来了，说简单一点，就是她的重力回来了。这是不是由于湖水分散了一些咒语的魔力，我可就不知道了。

就像一位老保姆说的那样，她能够像鸭子一样在水里游泳和潜水。这种可以减轻她不幸的方式是这样被发现的：

一个夏夜，举国上下正举行狂欢活动，公主被国王和王后带到湖上，坐上了皇家游艇。

群臣坐在一艘艘小船上紧随着他们。船队行至湖心的时候，公主想要跳进大法官的游艇中，去找他的女儿。因为，公主和大法官的女儿是好朋友。

老国王现在已经很少屈尊来试着开心一下了，然而这一回，他却做了一件相当滑稽的事情。当两船靠近的时候，他一下子拎起公主，把她扔向大法官的游艇。可就在这时，国王忽然失去了平衡，一下跌倒在船上，也没有抓住他的宝贝公主，不过好在他给了公主一个向下的力，虽然方向稍有不同。结果，国王跌倒在甲板上，而公主掉进了水里。

随着一阵开怀大笑，公主就消失在湖里。游船上响起一片惊恐的叫声。这以前他们从来没有见过公主会沉下去。

很多人都立刻跳入水中，可他们没过一会儿，又不得不浮出水面来换气。这时候，“咕噜，咕噜，扑哧，扑哧！”公主一下子从远处跃出水面，发出一阵笑声。

第08章01 Try a Drop of Water / 试试一滴水