born here. Mom’s parents were born in Lithuania. Dad’s parents were born here and his grandparents were born in Wales. After a time, my parents reconciled and he came to live with us in the other half of grandma’s large double house. I was happy they were back together. I was always on the honor roll and only got in trouble with the nuns when I would turn around when the boys pulled my long curls, which happened a lot. My punishment was to kneel down in front of the Blessed Virgin for a time. I never told why I kept turning around. When I was in fourth grade, my teacher was Sister Prudencia. She loved me and I loved her. I was her pet. The school consisted of eight grades and they were having a play which would be held at North Scranton Jr. High School stage. I was chosen as the lead.The play was “The Princess Who Never Smiled.” I had to sit on a gold throne and each of the eight grades would have to perform in front of me trying to make me smile or laugh, all in Lithuanian. “The Princess Who Never Smiled.” The Princess Who Never Smiled or The Unsmiling Tsarevna (Russian: Царевна Несмеяна) is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki. There was once a princess who never smiled or laughed. Her father promised that whoever made her smile could marry her, and many tried, but none succeeded. Across the town, an honest worker worked hard for his master.At the end of the year, the master put a sack of money before him and told him to take as much as he wanted.To avoid sinning by taking too much, he took only one coin, and when he went to drink from a well, he dropped the coin and lost it.The next year, the same thing happened to him.The third year, the worker took the same amount of coin as before, but when he drank from the well, he did not lose his coin, and the other two coins floated up to him. He decided to see the world.A mouse asked him for alms; he gave him a coin.Then he did the same for a beetle and a catfish.
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