A. A. Milne is best known as the author of the Winnie-the-Pooh books (which are lovely, by the way), but he also wrote a picture book called The Magic Hill.  It was about Princess Daffodil, a little girl who made flowers grow wherever she walked (a gift from the Fairy Mumruffin).  To keep the palace gardens looking nice, Daffodil was only allowed to walk in the flowerbeds, while the other children could only walk on the paths and lawns–and never the twain shall meet.

Spoiler alert here if that worries you!

Daffodil becomes very depressed because she’s separated from the other children, and finally the court physicians decide the answer is to let her go play on a hill outside the palace.  Flowers grow there, it becomes known as the Magic Hill, and everyone is much happier.

It’s a cute story, but, with all due respect to Mr. Milne, I’ve never liked the ending.  Why should Daffodil be happier playing alone on a hill rather than alone in the flowerbeds?  So after I read it, I wrote a new ending–which is what makes this a Fiction Friday rather than a book review.  🙂

A note before we begin: this is a little cutesy in spots, but bear in mind that it’s a continuation of a picture book (one with characters named Daffodil and Mumruffin!) and I was echoing Milne’s style a bit.  🙂

My writing picks up just before the physicians tell the King and Queen that Daffodil should visit the hill.  In the original, they say she must be like other girls, and then send her to the hill.  Mine goes differently…

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“In short, Your Majesty, although she is a princess, she must do what other little girls do.”

“But she is not like other little girls,” the Queen sighed.  “She is a princess, and one who spreads flowers besides.  What are we to do?”  So the King and the Queen fretted and fussed and the Doctor shook his head wisely and no one knew quite what to do.  They consulted physicians and herbwives and tried to contact Fairy Mumruffin but she had gone away for a long trip (and wouldn’t be back for at least a year and a day, and probably longer) and so everyone went on fretting and fussing.

And as for Princess Daffodil, she sat quietly and sadly in her room and stared out the window and thought about how nice it would be to go where there were other little children.  And as she sat staring out the window day by day, she began to look more and more thoughtfully at a small green hill in the not-too-far distance.  Though it was hard to tell for sure, the more she watched the more she thought that there weren’t any flowers there at all.  Princess Daffodil began to think she might like to go to that hill, and spread flowers there, and see if there were any children there to play with.  As she began to think this she began to want it more and more, until she wanted it so much that she very timidly suggested it to her parents.

“Ridiculous,” the King and Queen said promptly.  “Princesses can’t go running about on hills outside the palace grounds.”  Then they went back to their fretting and fussing.

But Princess Daffodil went on looking at the hill, and went on wanting to visit it.  Then one day she had her chance.  She was in a small garden on the palace grounds that was not often used, and not many people were around either.  There was a door in the wall surrounding the garden that led outside the grounds.  Everyone had forgotten about this door because a flowerbed had been placed in front of it, and of course no one stepped on the flowerbeds.  No one but Daffodil.

The Princess waited until no one was looking, then quickly and quietly slipped out of the door in the wall, intent on visiting her hill.  She could see it rising in the distance and gladly ran towards it.  She very carefully and very cleverly ran only where there were already flowers growing whenever it was possible, so that she wouldn’t leave a clear trail of flowers behind her.

Daffodil reached the hill quite quickly, and as she had thought there were no flowers growing there.  She began to run about up and down the hill, spreading trails of flowers in her wake.  Soon she decided to run around to the other side of the hill, the side she couldn’t see from the palace, and see what was there.  First she found a small cottage.  And then she found a small boy.

“Hello,” Daffodil said shyly.

“Hello,” the boy said shyly in reply.

Then Daffodil smiled and the boy smiled back, and after that they were friends.  Sometimes it happens that way.

“I’m Kip,” the boy said, looking around with wide eyes at the sudden explosion of color and flowers on his usually bare hill.  “Where did the flowers come from?”

“I’m Daffodil,” said Daffodil.  “They grow where I walk.  Do you live on the hill?”

“I live in the cottage with my mother,” Kip said, and didn’t say that they were very poor and lived in the little cottage on the little empty hill because they couldn’t live anywhere else.  “Can you control what flowers grow?”

No one had ever asked this of Daffodil before.  “Not exactly, but kind of,” Daffodil said, delighted to confide in her new friend.  “I don’t know how to make it grow any particular kind of flower, but I know that when I run the flowers grow taller, and when I dance they grow more beautiful.”

Kip held out one hand.  “I want to see.  Let’s dance.”

Daffodil happily took his hand, and the two children danced and whirled around the hill, laughing and smiling and occasionally tumbling but always getting up again.  Everywhere Daffodil’s little feet trod, a beautiful flower sprang up.

Meanwhile back at the palace, it had been noticed that the princess was gone.  If everyone had been fretting and fussing before, now they were really fussing and fretting.  The King blamed the Queen and the Queen blamed the King and they both blamed the Doctor and all three of them along with all the servants and gardeners and footmen hurried out of the palace and tore across the landscape searching for the little lost princess.  They might have gone on looking forever and ever and never found her, but that the very smallest footman noticed something.

“There’s flowers growing on that green hill where flowers never grow,” he said.  He had to say it quite a few times before anyone listened, because the important people of the palace were not accustomed to listening to very small footmen, but eventually they saw what he was getting at.  They all hastened off for the green hill.

Of course they found the princess there.  Without waiting for any explanations or stories they picked up the princess and carried her home.  Kip stood on the hill and watched until his new friend had disappeared back to the palace.

Back at the palace, everyone congratulated themselves quite happily on finding the princess.  They forgot about the smallest footman.  They were so busy congratulating themselves that they didn’t notice at first how sad the princess was.  Eventually, however, they had to notice, because she wasn’t getting any happier.

Princess Daffodil sat at her window all the time now, and looked out towards the green hill, and wouldn’t move for anything or anyone.  There was even more fussing and fretting now, and eventually it got to be so much that it turned into true worry and alarm.

When it progressed all the way to anxiety and fear the King issued a proclamation, promising half the kingdom to anyone who could make the princess smile and be happy.

Of course many, many people tried.  Funny people and interesting people and clever people came, but none of them could make Princess Daffodil smile.  She just sat and looked at the hill.

Meanwhile, life was better for Kip and his mother.  The flowers growing on their hill were the most beautiful flowers anywhere in the kingdom.  Every day Kip’s mother picked bouquets of flowers and took them to market to sell.  Soon they had more money, and so more food and were able to make the cottage nicer as well.  There were only two things bothering them.  Kip’s mother worried that they might run out of the flowers.  Kip missed Daffodil.  Alone on his hill, he didn’t have any friends to dance and play with.

Then one day, Kip heard about the proclamation issued by the King.  At once he decided to set out for the palace.

Unfortunately, no one at the palace wanted to let a little peasant boy in to see the King and the Queen about the proclamation.  They told him he must go away.  Kip was determined though, so he sat down in front of the palace and waited for his luck to change.

When no one else was looking, the smallest footman let him in.

Kip marched into the throne room and told the King and Queen that he must be allowed to see the princess, because he had come in answer to the proclamation.  The King and Queen thought this was rather silly, but that they might as well let the little boy in.  So they took Kip to see Daffodil.

As soon as she saw him Daffodil sprang up from her window seat with a happy smile and ran to meet him.  “Kip!  You came to visit me!” she exclaimed.

The King and the Queen were astonished.  At once they asked Kip how they could make the Princess happy in the future.

“That’s easy,” Kip said.  “Just let her come play on the hill.”

The King and the Queen weren’t sure.  “But she’s a princess.  Princesses don’t play outside the palace grounds.  Mightn’t you come and play with her here?”

But Daffodil and Kip were both insistent.  They must go play on the hill.

The King and the Queen looked at each other, then looked at how happy their daughter was, and agreed.  And so Kip fulfilled the requirements of the proclamation; he made the Princess laugh and be happy.  The King told him he’d earned half the kingdom if he wanted it.  Kip declined.  He just wanted to have his hill.  The King gave it to him very gladly.  He hadn’t really wanted to give up half his kingdom.  It was a nice little kingdom and he liked it.

So Princess Daffodil and Kip danced and played on the green hill every day.  Sometimes they invited the smallest footman along too.  Children played on the hill for many, many years, and it became known as the Magic Hill because of the beautiful flowers that grew there, and because of all the fun that was always had there.