212 PRINCE RICARDO.

 

him up and make him more vicious. And I
know of no other beast we can set against
him, as I did with the Fire-beast and the
Ice-beast, when I was young. Oh, for an
idea!”

Then his mind, somehow, went back to the
Council and the ponderous stupidity of the
Prime Minister.

‘* Heavier than lead,” said the king. ‘By
George! Ihavea plan. If I could get to the
place where they keep the Stupidity, I could
carry away enough of it to flatten out the
Earthquaker.”

Then he remembered how, in an old Italian
poem, he had read about all the strange lumber-
room of odd things which is kept in the moon.
That is the advantage of reading: Knowledge
is Power ; and you mostly get knowledge that
is really worth having out of good old books
which people do not usually read.

“If the Stupidity is kept in stock, up in the
moon, and comes from there, falling naturally
down on the earth in small quantities, I might
obtain enough for my purpose,” thought King
Prigio. ‘“‘But—how to get to the moon?
There are difficulties about that.”

But difficulties only sharpened the ingenuity
of this admirable king.

“The other fellow had a Flying Horse,” said
he.

By ‘‘the other fellow” King Prigio meant