This story was Somerset Maugham's contribution to the library of Queen Mary's Doll House. Maugham, along with 199 other well-known authors of the day, provided a miniature edition written in his very own hand, which was subsequently bound sumptuously in fine leather. The tale itself, however, was first published in Pearson's Magazine of 1922. It is a delightfully simple, somewhat whimsical story of a king and queen, nine princesses, nine parrots, one nightingale, and some cats. It has a message too, as Princess September discovers: "It is very difficult to put the happiness of someone you love before your own."