Sunday morning came. The girls left the castle acting as innocently as they could, trying not to cause any extra attention. They would have to go out through the Royal Gate, but the girls did not mind seeing the Royal Gate Keeper, because he was always friendly to them.
They slowly moved towards the Royal Lollipop Factory, pretending to play along the way so no one would suspect anything. When they got to the factory, Princess Joyfully Happy hid behind a bush while Princess Sweet Heart slowly opened the factory door, which was not locked. She waved Princess Joyfully Happy to come on because there was no one in sight. Both girls went inside and then quietly closed the door behind them.
They tiptoed really slowly and whispered as quietly as they could. It was scary. The first doors that they came to had important looking words printed on them, but then the doors were numbered, starting with number 1. Princess Sweet Heart knew that it was Lollipop-Maker #24 who was making her lollipop, so she guessed that his room would be number 24. They kept going, watching the numbers go up, but then the long hall stopped at number 19. There was a stairwell beside room number 19, so the girls went up the stairs. Sure enough, the numbers continued on with number 20. They tiptoed quietly along until they came to room number 24.
Princess Sweet Heart opened the door very slowly and carefully in case there was someone there. There was no one…but the lollipop was there, and not just the one lollipop…there were two identical rainbow-colored heart-shaped lollipops!
The girls were so amazed at how beautiful the lollipops were that they could not resist licking them. They each very carefully picked up one and started licking. Oh, how deliciously sweet! They kept right on licking.
They giggled when they saw the stain of the color on each other’s tongues. It was hard to stop licking, but then Princess Sweet Heart noticed that they were licking off the last layer of color. It was very noticeable. Now the Lollipop-Maker would know that someone had been there.
Princess Sweet Heart thought maybe if they watered down what was left of the last color, “painting” water all over the two lollipops, maybe the Lollipop-Maker would not notice. She looked around and found a couple of paint brushes which they dipped in water and then they “painted” this watered-down color over each lollipop. This first layer of watered-down color did not work well, so they did it again with more water, and then again. They had used lots of water but really all that happened was that they had watered down the color so much, the color was all gone. Besides, the colored sugar water dripped on their hands, down the lollipop sticks, onto the table and the floor. It even dripped on their dresses. It was a mess!
The girls tried to clean up the mess, but it just got messier. They knew that they had better get out of there pretty soon, and so they ran quickly and quietly out of the Royal Lollipop Factory with stains on their hands, tongues and dresses. They were really scared. They vowed to each other that they would never tell the truth.
On the way back to the Royal Castle, they pretended to play along the way so no one would suspect where they had been.
Approaching the Royal Castle, the girls hoped that they could get past the Royal Gate Keeper without him noticing anything wrong, but of course he saw that they were dirty with stains on their hands and dresses.
“Where have you Princesses been today to get so dirty?” he asked, smiling.
Princess Sweet Heart had already been thinking of what story she would tell if they were caught, knowing that whatever story she told would be a lie. She quickly answered, “We have been in the woods making pretend dinners and juices for our dolls.”
They quickly went to their bedrooms and changed clothes, putting their dirty, stained dresses under their beds, thinking they would never be found. They tried to wash the stains off of their hands, but they could not get them off completely.
At lunchtime, the King and the Queen asked the girls what they had done that morning. Princess Sweet Heart said, “We had such a fun time playing in the woods making dinners and juices for our dolls.” Their parents did not mind their stained hands, but they asked why their tongues had a stained color on them. The girls lied again, saying that they had to taste the food before they fed it to their dolls.
Now both princesses had strictly been told never to eat anything in the woods, so both the King and Queen severely scolded them for eating something that might have been poisonous. The girls had been so scared that their parents would find out what they had really done, that they were relieved to get away with only a scolding..