Telling Stories Through Objects - Brooklyn Children's Museum

The Dreaming Prince (continued)
several of its flat scales before unfolding its leathery
wings and disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
As the daylight streamed into his room, the
dreaming prince suddenly found himself with several
sheets of the purest white paper in his lap. On the
windowsill he found a tablet of dried black ink and a
brush with a tapering, flame-like end. There was an ink
stone on the floor. All of these tools he arranged
together. When he mixed water with the tablet of ink
on the surface of the ink stone, he heard tiny voices
calling out to him from the puddle of black liquid. They
said, “We are six and six magicians in this ink, here to
serve you and help you. Whatever you write or paint
with us will be wonderful, exceeding even your wildest
dreams.”
Encouraged, the dreaming prince opened his heart,
and wrote and painted about the many things he cared
for. He filled page after page with his visions. When he
had finished, he took this work to his father. At first the
busy king could not find a moment to look at the sheaf
of papers, but when he did, he lingered over it for a
long time. When he was done reading, he smiled at his
son. “After me, you shall be king,” he said.
“I have no desire to rule,” said the dreaming prince.
“My only wish, Father, has been to do something that
would someday, somehow, make you smile.” And with
this his father smiled, a bright smile, for a second time.
TELLING STORIES THROUGH OBJECTS 33