10 THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE HEMPSEED.

moon, or the opening of an oven; and displayed six teeth
like those of a wild boar. Thousands of little red spots,
like pimples, marked his
face, the skin of which,
byitsroughness, its colour,
and the thick red down
which covered the lower
part, instead of a beard,
seemed like a late autumn
peach ripened by the rain.
The hideous grossness of
his form made him appear
short. Drinking and glut-
tony had given him fat,
= but not health. He mis-
‘took his brutality for

4 strength, and his strength
. for courage. Rol was
===; never so happy as when
~_-=— he could break his riding

——- whip over the back of a
“i> horse, snap a cornel-tree
stick across the head of a
poor donkey, or bestow a
savage kick upon Turnspit, the faithful dog of the castle.
The unhappy animals, guided by their instinct, tried all
they could to avoid him; or else they grew irritable, and
showed their anger in various ways when they could not
escape his blows. He was their tormentor.

“Tt is all for their good, my lord,” he would say to
Prince Orfano-Orfana, when this nobleman, moved by the
prayers of his son, Prince Hempseed, reproached Rol for
ill-treating the animals; and that ill-treatment continued
just the same.

The little prince, fancying that he observed in the breast
of his sister Olympia that kind feeling which he sought for