Porcelain Princess Read Online Free PDF

ploughmen working the fields.
    ‘ Can’t stop, can’t stop,’ Jacob yelled back anxiously, worried
that he might forget The Meaning of Life before he had time to
write it down. ‘The Meaning of Life! I know The Meaning of
Life!’
    ‘ Jacob, Jacob, why this mad run?’ laughed children playing in
the street.
    ‘ Can’t stop, can’t stop,’ Jacob shouted back breathlessly.
‘The Meaning of Life! I know The Meaning of Life!’
    ‘ How
do you do, Jaco – well I never, how rude!’ complained his neighbour
as he hurtled past her, the mud from his boots splattering all over
her clean dress.
    ‘ Can’t stop, can’t stop,’ Jacob apologised, thinking he would
just have to explain the reason for his rudeness later. ‘The
Meaning of Life! I know The Meaning of Life!’
    At last, he was
at the door to his house. He flung the door open, barging into his
own kitchen as if the hounds of hell were after him.
    ‘ Margie, Margie,’ he cried out through the door leading to the
rest of his house. ‘I need a pen, I need paper! Quick, quick; this
is important.’
    Of course,
without waiting for his wife’s reply or response, he began to
frantically rifle through the drawers in the kitchen, trying to
recall where he had last seen a scrap of paper he could
use.
    ‘ What is the meaning of all this commotion, Jacob?’ his wife
sternly demanded as she appeared at the kitchen door.
    ‘ Pen,
paper!’ Jacob cried, still fruitlessly rummaging through the
clutter of items that had been pushed away into the drawers. ‘I
need pen and paper!’
    ‘ Whatever for Jacob? Have you forgotten your manners? Haven’t
you remembered that you’re supposed to ask nicely for things you
need?’
    ‘ Yes,
yes, I’m sorry Margie dear; but I need it to write down an inspiration , an inspiration that could make us famous! Make
us rich , dear!’
    He beamed
excitedly as, at last, he found the crumpled scrap of paper he’d
been looking for.
    ‘ But
just look at the mess you’re making, Jacob!’ his wife
stormed, looking on in horror at all the things he was strewing
across the floor in his eagerness to find pen and paper. ‘Have you
forgotten that it’s best to remain calm and thoughtful when you
can’t remember where you’ve put something?’
    ‘ Found it, found it!’ Jacob yelled in triumph as he held up a
blunted stub of a pencil along with his scrap of paper.
    He flattened out
the crumpled paper. He pressed the pencil against the paper as he
began to write.
    ‘ Jacob!’ his wife shrieked as she tugged the paper out from
beneath his hand. ‘Has it already slipped your memory how your
complaint to the council wasn’t taken seriously because you’d
written it on a worthless bit of paper?’
    With a flourish,
she produced a sheet of the finest paper from a drawer that Jacob
hadn’t got around to searching.
    ‘ Yes,
yes,’ he agreed, taking the paper from her with a grateful smile.
‘The Meaning of Life needs to be presented on the finest paper to
be taken with the seriousness it deserves!’
    ‘ The
Meaning of Life?’ his wife declared in awe and admiration as Jacob
prepared to write his amazing insight down on the perfectly
linen-white paper.
    She snatched the
stubby pencil from his hand.
    ‘ Jacob! You can’t write down The Meaning of Life with that !’
    She turned
towards a cupboard, producing a wonderfully elegant quill and ink
reservoir.
    ‘ Can’t you hold anything in that empty head of yours?
Have you already forgotten how I bought you this for your
birthday?’
    ‘ Yes,
yes, I remember now,’ Jacob replied, gleefully accepting the
elegant quill handed to him by his wife. ‘You said that it would
make me look like a man of letters, an educated, knowledgeable
man!’
    He spread the
perfectly blank piece of paper out before him. He dipped the
beautifully graceful quill in the ink. He brought it to hover
expectantly over the pristine paper.
    His wife beamed
with pride.
    ‘ Well?’ she said after a moment in