The Curse

Once upon a time there was a Prince who, through no fault of his own was  cast under a spell by an evil witch. The curse was that the Prince could speak only one word each year. However, he could save up the words so  that  if he did not speak for a whole year, then the following year he was allowed  to speak two words. (This was before the time of letter writing or sign  language.)

One day he met a beautiful princess (ruby lips, golden hair,  sapphire eyes,) and fell madly in love. With the greatest difficulty he decided to refrain from speaking for two whole years so that  he could  look at her and say "my darling". But at the end of the two years he wished to  tell her that he loved her. Because of this he waited three more years  without speaking (bringing the total number of silent years to 5).  But at the end of these five years he realized that he had to ask her to  marry him. So he waited ANOTHER four years without speaking (to say "Will you marry me?").

Finally as the ninth year of silence ended, his joy knew no  bounds. Leading the lovely princess to the most secluded and  romantic place  in that beautiful royal garden the prince heaped a hundred red roses on her  lap, knelt before her, and taking her hand in his, said  huskily, "My darling, I love you! Will you marry me?"  And the princess tucked a strand  of golden hair behind a dainty ear, opened her sapphire eyes in wonder, and,  parting her ruby lips, said: "Pardon?"