The king's son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks.

"Aha!" she cried mockingly, "you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again."

The king's son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes.

He wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented.

At the end of this famous fairytale in Grimms' Fairytales, the prince climbs up to save his sweetheart, only to be confronted by the wicked enchantress. Things go very badly, but—wait for it—everything turns out okay.

The prince falls from the tower when he realizes it's the enchantress and not Rapunzel waiting for him at the top—and he's blinded in the process. But even though the prince roams about "in misery" for years, through a happy coincidence he comes across Rapunzel again. Her tears magically cure his blindness…and they live happily ever after.

This happy ending is characteristic of the optimism that we'll find in children's stories. No matter how badly things go, no matter how down in the dumps the characters get, everything works out for them in the end. Wouldn't it be great if life actually worked out like that?

Notice the simple language? You might think that's characteristic of children's literature—and in some cases it is—but keep your eye out for some wonky language stuff happening as you read kids' lit. Dr. Seuss isn't the only children's author who liked to make up words.