I4 PRINCE PRIGIO.

 

CHAPTER III.

cAbout the Firedrake.

F all the people who did not like Prigio,
} his own dear papa, King Grognio, dis-
liked him most. For the king knew he
was not clever himself. When he was
in the counting-house, counting out his
money, and when he happened to say,
** Sixteen shillings and fourteen and twopence
are three pounds, fifteen,” it made him wild to
hear Prigio whisper, ‘‘ One pound, ten and two-
pence,”’—which, of course, it is. And the king
was afraid that Prigio would conspire, and get
made king himself—which was the last thing
Prigio really wanted. He much preferred to
idle about, and know everything without seem-
ing to take any trouble.

Well, the king thought and thought. How
was he to get Prigio out of the way, and make
Enrico or Alphonso his successor? He read
in books about it; and all the books showed
that, if a king sent his three sons to do anything,
it was always the youngest who did it, and got
the crown. And he wished he had the chance.
Well, it arrived at last.