But living alone left Rafe sad, so he decided he must move on to see the rest of the world. He sold the land and the orange trees, and with that money he bought a violin. He wanted to play the songs his parents once sang to him.
Day and night he practiced his violin, and soon he played it so well and with such emotion that his cat wept at the sound of the sad songs.
“Come,” Rafe said to the cat. “Let us go into the world and find some work.”
He set off toward the palace, taking along his violin, of course. At the palace he asked the king for work. But the king shook his head. He did not need any more musicians or servants or guards or shepherds.
“I need only someone to fight the giants,” he said, referring to his kingdom’s enormous enemy. “But you are obviously not fit for that sort of job.” And with that the king sent Rafe away.
Rafe walked into the forest, and there he began to play his violin. The music wafted over the hills, and when the sheep heard it, they loved it so much that they followed the sound into the forest.
When Rafe saw the sheep coming toward him, his heart swelled with joy. As it did, the music changed, and instead of sadness, his music was filled with joy. Soon his cat began to dance to the tune, and this pleased Rafe so much that the songs grew livelier.
Pretty soon the sheep could not resist. They too began to dance to Rafe’s violin music, and this pleased him so much that he played louder and faster and more beautifully.
He began to dance through the forest, leading the dancing cat and the dancing sheep. Before long they passed by a tree where the squirrel monkeys were resting. When they saw the festivities below, they began to chatter, spreading word of the beautiful music. Soon the squirrel monkeys and the woolly monkeys and the red-eyed frogs were all dancing.
When the tapir heard the sound, he too began to dance, and so did the jaguar and the marmoset and the armadillo in his heavy armor. When the alligator heard the music, he swam out of the river to dance. Snakes curled themselves around tree trunks to dance with the trees. The toucans danced upon the air, and soon every creature in the rain forest was celebrating Rafe’s beautiful music.
Rafe and his followers danced through the forest, until at long last they reached the high wall that surrounded the land of the terrible giants.
One menacing giant guarded the wall, but when he saw Rafe and his merry band, he began to laugh so hard that he nearly fell from the wall. He couldn’t resist taking them inside to see the giant king.
“Look at this,” the giant guard said to the giant king, pointing at Rafe and his dancing procession. The king began to laugh so hard that he nearly cried.
Now all the giants were howling with laughter, and because they were so large, the earth began to shake beneath their feet. Outside those walls, the people did not know what was happening. They cowered in fear.
But Rafe was not afraid. He loved the sight of all these animals dancing and these giants laughing, and so his music became lighter and prettier and quicker. Soon the giant’s daughter heard the sound, and she came to see what was happening.
The giantess had never in all her life laughed, but when she saw all of those giants and animals dancing to the tune this handsome lad played, she could not help but smile.
The king turned to look at his daughter and was amazed to see her smile. And then he turned back to Rafe and said, “If you can make my daughter laugh, I’ll give you half my kingdom!”
“I’ll do my best,” Rafe said. He turned toward his band of animals and said, “Dance, dance, dance!” and played that magical violin.
All of a sudden the world shook with the sound of the giantess’s laughter — the first laugh she had ever uttered.
“You have earned half my kingdom,” the giant said to Rafe.
“Thank you,” Rafe said. “We shall live in peace with all the people!”
Rafe served as a prince in the land of giants. The giants no longer threatened the people. And if anyone refused to obey Rafe’s call for peace, all he had to do was play his violin. Soon everyone forgot their quarrels and swayed to the sound of his music.
“Let joy and music rule this earth!” Rafe declared, and ever after that, everyone in the land loved music and dance.
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