“The Story of a Helpful Queen” by Carmen Sylva (Queen Elisabeth of Romania)

“One upon a time there lived a good Queen. She would fain have assuaged all the suffering she saw on earth, but the more good she did, the more distress seemed to increase. Her means were inadequate to help the poor, her words proved unequal to the task of freeing those in sorrow from their grief, and her hands were unable to bring healing to the sick. Then the thought occurred to her that it must be impossible that God should have intended the world to be so full of misery; she felt that mankind was destined to be happy, if only it knew how. One day she entered a church and prayed to God with an intensity the full strength of which she was unable to realize at the time. She prayed as many other foolish mortals pray, who do not know what it would mean to them if their prayers were granted.”

Source: A Real Queen’s Fairy Book by Carmen Sylva (Queen of Roumania), London, George Newnes, 1901.