PRINCE RICARDO. 143

 

ture which he enjoyed. Dragons for his
money !

One day the Princess Jaqueline took a curious
plan of showing Ricardo how little interest,
after all, there is in performing the most won-
derful exploits without any real difficulty or
danger. They were drifting before a light
breeze on a hill lake; Ricardo was fishing, and
Jaqueline was sculling a stroke now and then,
just to keep the boat right with the wind.
Ricardo had very bad sport, when suddenly the
trout began to rise all over the lake. Dick got
excited, and stumbled about the boat from stern
to bow, tripping over Jaqueline’s feet, and
nearly upsetting the vessel in his hurry to
throw his flies over every trout he saw feeding.
But, as too often occurs, they were taking one
particular fly which was on the water, and would
look at nothing else.

‘Oh, bother them!” cried Ricardo. ‘I
can’t find a fly in my book in the least like that
little black one they are feeding on!”

He tried half-a-dozen different fly-hooks,
but all to no purpose; he lost his temper,
got his tackle entangled in Jaqueline’s hair
and then in the landing-net; and, though
such a big boy, he was nearly crying with
vexation.

The Princess Jaqueline, with great pains and
patience, disentangled the casting line, first from
her hair, which Ricardo was anxious to cut (the