6. She Laughs Too Much.

Meantime, notwithstanding awkward occurrences,and griefs that she brought upon her parents, the little princess laughed andgrew—not fat, but plump and tall. She reached the age of seventeen, withouthaving 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 shewas, had she committed anything worse than laughter at everybody and everythingthat came in her way.

When she was told, for the sake of experiment, thatGeneral Clanrunfort was cut to pieces with all his troops, she laughed; whenshe heard that the enemy was on his way to besiege her papa's capital, shelaughed hugely; but when she was told that the city would certainly beabandoned to the mercy of the enemy's soldiery—why, then she laughedimmoderately. She never could be brought to see the serious side of anything.When her mother cried, she said,—

"What queer faces mamma makes! And shesqueezes water out of her cheeks? Funny mamma!"

And when her papa stormed at her, she laughed,and danced round and round him, clapping her hands, and crying—

"Do it again, papa. Do it again! It's SUCHfun! Dear, funny papa!"

And if he tried to catch her, she glided fromhim in an instant, not in the least afraid of him, but thinking it part of thegame not to be caught.

 With onepush of her foot, she would be floating in the air above his head; or she wouldgo dancing backwards and forwards and sideways, like a great butterfly. Ithappened several times, when her father and mother were holding a consultationabout her in private, that they were interrupted by vainly repressed outburstsof laughter over their heads; and looking up with indignation, saw her floatingat full length in the air above them, whence she regarded them with the mostcomical appreciation of the position.

6.她笑得太多了

与此同时，尽管棘手的事情接踵而至，也给她的父母带来不断的烦恼，可小公主还是笑着长得又结实又高大——不是胖。直到她长到17岁，最不幸的一次意外也就是掉进了烟囱里，最后是一个掏鸟蛋的小孩把灰头土脸的公主救了出来，并因此出了名。这些倒不算什么，可由于她缺心眼，所以最糟糕的事，就是她不管遇到什么人、什么事，都会哈哈大笑。

有时候，为了试验一下，人们告诉她，柯兰瑞恩福特将军被他的士兵五马分尸了，她大笑；当她听到敌人的军队马上要来包围她父王的首府时，她笑得更厉害了；而当她听说由于敌军士兵的仁慈，城市将要被放过的时候——你猜怎么样，她竟然笑得前仰后合。她从来看不到任何事情严肃的一面。当她母亲哭的时候，她说道：

“妈妈长了多么奇怪的一张脸啊！她的脸上挤出水了！妈妈好好笑！”

当她的父亲对她大发雷霆的时候，她还是笑，绕着他一圈一圈跳起舞来，一边拍手，一边大喊：

“继续，继续，爸爸。再来一次！这真是太好笑了！亲爱的滑稽爸爸！”

假如国王想抓住她，她就会立刻从他手中溜走，不但连一点起码的害怕都没有，反倒把这个当作是玩“你抓不到我”的游戏。

她一跺脚，就能飘到国王的头顶上方，或者在他前后左右四处飞舞，像一只硕大的蝴蝶。这种事情发生了好几次。当她的父王和母后想要私下里讨论她的事情，就会被头顶传来的嬉笑声打断。他们气愤地抬头一看，就会看到小公主正好飘在他们头顶上方，那里是她觉得欣赏父母最有趣 的位置。