Once upon a time there was a little girl whose name was Karin. Her parents had died when she was very young, so she lived with her uncle. He was already quite an elderly gentleman, and since he had never had children of his own, he thought that a good heart and kind words would be enough to bring her up properly. When Karin did something she shouldn’t have done, he told her off a bit, but he never really punished her for anything. And as it happened, when things didn’t go exactly as Karin wanted them to, she would stamp her feet and scream so loudly that she could be heard from the farthest end of the street.
One day, Karin’s uncle decided that it was high time he put a stop to her antics. He told Karin that her behaviour was sometimes quite impolite and unladylike. When Karin turned her back on him in a huff, her uncle couldn’t help himself any longer, and he smacked her on the bottom.
Karin ran out of the house crying. She didn’t know where she was going, but she didn’t stop running until nightfall, by which time she was completely exhausted from all the running and all her anger. She sat down at the side of the road and looked sadly at her sore feet and at her shoes, which she had completely worn out. As she sat there, a noble lady drove past in a carriage. Karin caught the lady’s interest, and she took Karin home with her.
The lady was very nice to Karin from the beginning, and Karin knew how to take advantage of that. For instance, she took it into her head that she would like to dress like a princess. She begged so much…
