All the Year Round - Holiday Romance

This is another piece of fiction that follows ‘The Moonstone’ in All the Year Round.  The predominance of fiction shows the importance placed on words and creativity in the magazine.  This particular section details a conversations between a poor, dejected king, and his daughter Princess Alicia.  In one section, the King admits to his daughter that he is “dreadfully poor”.  The Princess inquires him further about the absolute destitution of his circumstances, and then produces a “magic fish-bone” from her pocket.  She then tells her father a secret that she had learned from “the good fairy Grandmarina’s WORDS, and which she had so often whispered to her…friend” [emphasis added].  Even though the fish-bone does end up getting the king the money that he needs, it is Princess Alicia’s memory of the fairy’s words, as well as her belief in the power of a mere fishbone that leads to salvation for her family.  In this story, the mind and imagination is rewarded.  This kind of instruction would potentially influence the viewers to focus more on the intellectual puzzle of the Moonstone, instead of simply the blinding distraction of the diamond itself.