The Three Princes

Also Mom's story...

Once upon a time, there was a king who had the most beautiful and kind daughter in all of the kingdoms nearby. However, the king had a problem. His kingdom was secluded in a high mountain range, and very few people ever visited it. The king wanted his only daughter to find a nice young prince to marry, but the kingdom was so hard to get to that none of the local princes had ever been there. The king did not want his daughter to marry just any old prince, however. He wanted her to marry a good man who would make a good king for his kingdom and a good husband for his daughter. And so the king came up with a plan. He sent letters to three of the nearby princes asking them to meet at the foot of a very large mountain on the border of his kingdom, where they would find a quest waiting for them.

The three princes journeyed from far away to the meeting place and arrived on the appointed day. There was Prince I Can Do It By Myself, Prince You Can Do It For Me and Prince I Can Do All Things Through Christ. The princes looked around at the foot of the mountain for some sign of what they should do next, but all they could see was the entrance to what looked like a small, rocky cave. The three princes decided that they would have to go in one at a time, so that each prince would have an equal and fair chance.

"Well, I'm going in first," said Prince I Can Do It By Myself. "I'll show you how it's done."

So, Prince I Can Do It By Myself lit his torch and went into the gloomy cave. He walked through a tunnel just tall enough for a man to walk upright, and pushed a few spider webs out of his way. Those were not going to stop Prince I Can Do It By Myself. Before long the tunnel opened into a large cavern. When the prince had taken a few seconds to shine his torch around, he saw that there was a dry stream bed running through the center of the cavern. At the edge of the stream bed, there was a small wooden rowboat with oars for two people, and sitting in the boat was a small, wrinkly old man wearing an old, worn out, floppy green hat. He looked almost like he might be made of wood, or at least like he had not moved a muscle in a very, very long time. After a few moments of glancing around the cavern, it was clear to Prince I Can Do It By Myself that the only way to continue further into the mountain was to cross the dry stream bed to get to another tunnel on the other side. The prince walked up to the edge of the stream bed.

"Hello," said the old man suddenly.

Prince I Can Do It By Myself jumped and twirled around to face the old man. "What do you want, old wart?"

The old man tilted his head up slowly so that the prince could see his face under his giant hat. "You're going to need a boat if you want to get across that there stream."

Prince I Can Do It By Myself turned up his nose. "You must be seeing things, old man. There isn't any stream there. By the look of it, there hasn't been any water in this place for years. I'm going to walk right across without any problem, you watch."

"You do what you like." The old man shrugged. "But I'm telling you, this here is a magic stream. As soon as you set foot in that stream bed, a whole lot of water is going to come rushing out of this mountain, and if you don't have a good boat and two good rowers, you're going to be washed right out of the mountain."

Now, Prince I Can Do It By Myself was certainly arrogant, but he was not stupid. He knew that when you are on a quest and an old man tells you something, you had better listen. So, Prince I Can Do It By Myself walked over to the boat.

"All right, old man," he said, "I'll get in your boat. But I don't need the help of an old sack of bones like you to row across. I can do it by myself." And Prince I Can Do It By Myself pushed the front of the boat just into the stream bed and climbed in. He took his own oar in one hand and the old man's oar in the other and hunched over to wait. A few moments later, a wall of rapidly-moving water rushed out of the mountain and into the dry stream bed. The little boat was pushed quickly downstream. Prince I Can Do It By Myself rowed as hard as he could, but he was no match for the strong current.