He had been very careful in choosing his tutors and governors when he was a boy , and when he became a youth he sent him to travel , so that he might see the ways of other people , and find that they were often as good as his own . It was now a year since the prince had returned home , for his father felt that it was time that his son should learn how to rule the kingdom which would one day be his . But during his long absence the prince seemed to have changed his character altogether . From being a merry and light-hearted boy , he had grown into a gloomy and thoughtful man . The king knew of nothing that could have produced such an alteration . He vexed himself about it from morning till night , till at length an explanation occurred to him -- the young man was in love ! Now the prince never talked about his feelings -- for the matter of that he scarcely talked at all ; and the father knew that if he was to come to the bottom of the prince 's dismal face , he would have to begin . So one day , after dinner , he took his son by the arm and led him into another room , hung entirely with the pictures of beautiful maidens , each one more lovely than the other . ` My dear boy , ' he said , ` you are very sad ; perhaps after all your wanderings it is dull for you here all alone with me . It would be much better if you would marry , and I have collected here the portraits of the most beautiful women in the world of a rank equal to your own . Choose which among them you would like for a wife , and I will send an embassy to her father to ask for her hand . ' ` Alas ! your Majesty , ' answered the prince , ` it is not love or marriage that makes me so gloomy ; but the thought , which haunts me day and night , that all men , even kings , must die . Never shall I be happy again till I have found a kingdom where death is unknown . And I have determined to give myself no rest till I have discovered the Land of Immortality . The old king heard him with dismay ; things were worse than he thought . He tried to reason with his son , and told him that during all these years he had been looking forward to his return , in order to resign his throne and its cares , which pressed so heavily upon him . But it was in vain that he talked ; the prince would listen to nothing , and the following morning buckled on his sword and set forth on his journey . He had been travelling for many days , and had left his fatherland behind him , when close to the road he came upon a huge tree , and on its topmost bough an eagle was sitting shaking the branches with all his might . This seemed so strange and so unlike an eagle , that the prince stood still with surprise , and the bird saw him and flew to the ground .
The moment its feet touched the ground he changed into a XXXXX .
character explanation father feelings governors king marriage men merry women