PRINCE PRIGIO. Il

 

poor; and why the king—who was a little
greedy—should have poached. eggs and plum-
cake at afternoon tea, while many other persons
went without dinner. The king was so sur-
prised and hurt at these remarks that he boxed
the prince’s ears, saying, ‘‘I’ll teach you to be
too clever, my lad.” Then he remembered the
awful curse of the oldest fairy, and was sorry for
the rudeness of the queen. And when the prince,
after having his ears boxed, said that “‘ force was
no argument,” the king went away in a rage.

Indeed, I cannot tell you how the prince
was hated by all! He would go down into
the kitchen, and show the cook how to make
soup. He would visit the poor people’s cot-
tage, and teach them how to make the beds,
and how to make plum pudding out of turnip-
tops, and venison cutlets out of rusty bacon.
He showed the fencing-master how to fence,
and the professional cricketer how to bowl, and
instructed the rat-catcher in breeding terriers.
He set sums to the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, and assured the Astronomer Royal
that the sun does not go round the earth—
which, for my part, I believe it does. The
young ladies of the court disliked dancing with
him, in spite of his good looks, because he was
always asking, “‘Have you read this?” and
*“ Have you read that ?”—and when they said
they hadn’t, he sneered; and when they said
they had, he found them out.