My father wanted me to flatter him by telling him how much I loved him. I said, “I look upon you as salt in my food.”

That didn’t go over too well! He got really angry and banished me.

Since I had no skills, I dressed myself in rags and went looking for menial work. I ended up working as a shepherdess, and one day I put on one of my beautiful dresses, just to remember old times.

A prince came riding by and he fell in love with me. After a little while, we were married and I invited my father to the wedding.

At the wedding breakfast, I wouldn’t allow him to have any salt in his bread or his meat.

He scowled and ate very little. “Is your meat not to your taste?” I asked.

“No, it is tasteless,” he said.

I didn’t need to tell him that salt was the best thing in life.

The Princess Who is Exiled Because of Salt in The Dirty Shepherdess, Green Fairy Book. Painting by Rudolph Lehmann.

Here is a princess who refuses to play the game and say what she knew her father wanted to hear. She put her entire future at risk. What would she say was the greater risk?