Once upon a time, so long ago that I have forgotten the date, there lived a king and queen who had no children. The king was always grumbling about it. It was more than he deserved, therefore, when, at last, the king and queen had a daughter— “as lovely a little princess as ever cried.”

The King wrote all the invitations to the christening and, of course, he forgot someone. Unfortunately, the person he forgot was his own sister, the Princess Makemnoit. And she was a wicked witch.

Makemnoit arrived at the christening with an evil spell for the baby:
Light of spirit, by my charms,
Never weary human arms.
Light of body, every part;
Only crush thy parents’ heart.

Suddenly, the princess was lighter than air; she’d lost her gravity.

One day she slipped out of her nurse’s arms and floated to the ceiling. The King had to get a ladder to pull her down.

Another day, they put the baby down to sleep on the Queen’s bed and a gust of wind carried her off. They found her under a rose bush, and they watched her much more carefully after that.

Everyone loved the baby, because she was always laughing. The servants loved to play ball with her, with the giggling baby as the ball.

By the time the Princess was seventeen, she had learned never to go anywhere without a heavy stone to hold her down, but she was still laughing. She laughed at everything—even sad things. Her parents were very worried.

Two wise philosophers (at least they said they were wise) from the College of Metaphysicians had many suggestions. “Give her tests and tests and tests and tests and tests!” cried one. “But with all these tests, she’ll have no time to learn,” objected the other. “True, but at least we’ll know it,” replied the first. But their majesties loved their daughter too much to try any of their solutions.

One summer evening, the whole court was out on the lake in a fleet of sail boats. The Princess accidentally fell overboard —and came up again, laughing and swimming like a swan. In the water she had gravity. It was wonderful. She stayed in the lake all day, every day, all summer long. Even her personality seemed to have more gravity in the water.-

She still laughed, though, and her laugh was so odd that one day a handsome Prince mistook her laughing for screaming. He jumped in to rescue her, but she ordered him to put her back “up, in the water”. Confused, he carried her to a cliff and jumped in with her. Falling in was the most delightful fun she’d ever had; he offered to fall in with her any time and, before long, he fell in love with her.

When Princess Makemnoit learnt that her spell was broken in water, she caused all the water in the kingdom to dry up. The Princess’s beloved lake began to sink. The Princess was devastated. People said she would not live an hour after the lake was gone.

A group of children found a golden plate bearing a message: “Find the hole through which the water ran. The body of a living man alone shall staunch the flow. The man must offer himself of his own free will and the lake must take his life as it fills.”

The Prince offered to save the lake and the Princess, on one condition. The Princess must stay with him and keep him company as the lake filled around him. The Princess agreed. All she cared about was her lake—until she saw the Prince nearly drown. She dove into the water, pulled him out of the hole and dragged him to shore. For a while it looked hopeless. But just as the sun rose, he opened his eyes. The Princess burst into tears and fell on the floor. She had found her gravity.

Outside, torrents of rain filled the lake, flooding the witch’s house and burying her in the ruins.

The Princess had to learn to walk, but the Prince helped. It wasn’t long before they could walk to the church and get married. And none of their children ever lost a single atom of gravity. married. And none of their children ever lost a single atom of gravity.