"If I were you, sir, I'd cast off those grapnels, and separate the
vessels. If we don't do that those rascals, when they have finished
robbing our money-chests, will come back here and murder us all."

"That is a good idea," said Captain Covajos; and he told the chief
mate to give orders to cast off the grapnels, push the two vessels
apart, and set some of the sails.

When this had been done, the corsair vessel began to move away from
the other, and was soon many lengths distant from her. When the
corsairs came on deck and perceived what had happened, they were
infuriated, and immediately began to pursue their own vessel with the
one they had captured. But the "Horn o' Plenty" could not, by any
possibility, sail as fast as the corsair ship, and the latter easily
kept away from her.

"Now, then," said Baragat to the Captain, "what you have to do is
easy enough. Sail straight for our port and those sea-robbers will
follow you; for, of course, they will wish to get their own vessel
back again, and will hope, by some carelessness on our part, to
overtake us. In the mean time the money will be safe enough, for they
will have no opportunity of spending it; and when we come to port, we
can take some soldiers on board, and go back and capture those
fellows. They can never sail away from us on the 'Horn o' Plenty.'"

"That is an admirable plan," said the Captain, "and I shall carry it
out; but I cannot sail to port immediately. I must first find Apple
Island and land these boys, whose parents and guardians are probably
growing very uneasy. I suppose the corsairs will continue to follow
us wherever we go."

"I hope so," said Baragat; "at any rate we shall see."

The First Class in Long Division was very much delighted with the
change of vessels, and the boys rambled everywhere, and examined with
great interest all that belonged to the corsairs. They felt quite
easy about the only treasures they possessed, because, when they had
first seen the piratical vessel approaching, they had taken the
precious nuts which had been given to them by the King, and had
hidden them at the bottom of some large boxes, in which the Captain
kept the sailors' winter clothes.

"In this warm climate," said the eldest boy, "the robbers will never
meddle with those winter clothes, and our precious fruit will be
perfectly safe."

"If you had taken my advice," said one of the other boys, "we should
have eaten some of the nuts. Those, at least, we should have been
sure of."

"And we should have had that many less to show to the other classes,"
said the eldest boy. "Nuts like these, I am told, if picked at the
proper season, will keep for a long time."

For some days the corsairs on board the "Horn o' Plenty" followed
their own vessel, but then they seemed to despair of ever being able
to overtake it, and steered in another direction. This threatened to
ruin all the plans of Captain Covajos, and his mind became troubled.
Then the boy who had studied mechanics came forward and said to the
Captain:

"I'll tell you what I'd do, sir, if I were you; I'd follow your old
ship, and when night came on I'd sail up quite near to her, and let
some of your sailors swim quietly over, and fasten a cable to her,
and then you could tow her after you wherever you wished to go."

"But they might unfasten the cable, or cut it," said Baragat, who was
standing by.

"That could easily be prevented," said the boy. "At their end of the
cable must be a stout chain which they cannot cut, and it must be
fastened so far beneath the surface of the water that they will not
be able to reach it to unfasten it."

"A most excellent plan," said Captain Covajos; "let it be carried
out."

As soon as it became quite dark, the corsair vessel quietly
approached the other, and two stout sailors from Finland, who swam
very well, were ordered to swim over and attach the chain-end of a
long cable to the "Horn o' Plenty." It was a very difficult
operation, for the chain was heavy, but the men succeeded at last,
and returned to report.

"We put the chain on, fast and strong sir," they said to the Captain;
"and six feet under water. But the only place we could find to make
it fast to was the bottom of the rudder."

"That will do very well," remarked Baragat; "for the 'Horn o' Plenty'
sails better backward than forward, and will not be so hard to tow."

For week after week, and month after month, Captain Covajos, in the
corsair vessel, sailed here and there in search of Apple Island,
always towing after him the "Horn o' Plenty," with the corsairs on
board, but never an island with a school on it could they find; and
one day old Baragat came to the Captain and said:

"If I were you, sir, I'd sail no more in these warm regions. I am
quite sure that apples grow in colder latitudes, and are never found
so far south as this."

"That is a good idea," said Captain Covajos. "We should sail for the
north if we wished to find an island of apples. Have the vessel
turned northward."

And so, for days and weeks, the two vessels slowly moved on to the
north. One day the Captain made some observations and calculations,
and then he hastily summoned Baragat.

"Do you know," said he, "that I find it is now near the end of
November, and I am quite certain that we shall not get to the port
where my son lives in time to celebrate last Christmas again. It is
dreadfully slow work, towing after us the 'Horn o' Plenty,' full of
corsairs, wherever we go. But we cannot cast her off and sail
straight for our port, for I should lose my good ship, the merchants
would lose all their money, and the corsairs would go unpunished;
and, besides all that, think of the misery of the parents and
guardians of those poor boys. No; I must endeavor to find Apple
Island. And if I cannot reach port in time to spend last Christmas
with my son, I shall certainly get there in season for Christmas
before last. It is true that I spent that Christmas with my daughter,
but I cannot go on to her now. I am much nearer the city where my son
lives; and, besides, it is necessary to go back, and give the
merchants their money. So now we shall have plenty of time, and need
not feel hurried."

"No," said Baragat, heaving a vast sigh, "we need not feel hurried."

The mind of the eldest boy now became very much troubled, and he
called his companions about him. "I don't like at all," said he,
"this sailing to the north. It is now November, and, although it is
warm enough at this season in the southern part of the sea, it will
become colder and colder as we go on. The consequence of this will be
that those corsairs will want winter clothes, they will take them out
of the Captain's chests, and they will find our fruit."

The boys groaned. "That is true," said one of them; "but still we
wish to go back to our island."

"Of course," said the eldest boy, "it is quite proper that we should
return to Long Division. But think of the hard work we did to get
that fruit, and think of the quarts of gold we gave up for it! It
would be too bad to lose it now!"

It was unanimously agreed that it would be too bad to lose the fruit,
and it was also unanimously agreed that they wished to go back to
Apple Island. But what to do about it, they did not know.

Day by day the weather grew colder and colder, and the boys became
more and more excited and distressed for fear they should lose their
precious fruit. The eldest boy lay awake for several nights, and then
a plan came into his head. He went to Captain Covajos and proposed
that he should send a flag of truce over to the corsairs, offering to
exchange winter clothing. He would send over to them the heavy
garments they had left on their own vessel, and in return would take
the boxes of clothes intended for the winter wear of his sailors. In
this way, they would get their fruit back without the corsairs
knowing any thing about it. The Captain considered this an excellent
plan, and ordered the chief mate to take a boat and a flag of truce,
and go over to the "Horn o' Plenty," and make the proposition. The
eldest boy and two of the others insisted on going also, in order
that there might be no mistake about the boxes. But when the
flag-of-truce party reached the "Horn o' Plenty" they found not a
corsair there! Every man of them had gone. They had taken with them
all the money-chests, but to the great delight of the boys, the boxes
of winter clothes had not been disturbed; and in them still nestled,
safe and sound, the precious nuts of the Fragile Palm.

When the matter had been thoroughly looked into, it became quite
evident what the corsairs had done. There had been only one boat on
board the "Horn o' Plenty," and that was the one on which the First
Class in Long Division had arrived. The night before, the two vessels
had passed within a mile or so of a large island, which the Captain
had approached in the hope it was the one they were looking for, and
they passed it so slowly that the corsairs had time to ferry
themselves over, a few at a time, in the little boat, taking with
them the money,--and all without discovery.

Captain Covajos was greatly depressed when he heard of the loss of
all the money.

"I shall have a sad tale to tell my merchants," he said, "and
Christmas before last will not be celebrated so joyously as it was
the first time. But we cannot help what has happened, and we all must
endeavor to bear our losses with patience. We shall continue our
search for Apple Island, but I shall go on board my own ship, for I
have greatly missed my carpeted quarter-deck and my other comforts.
The chief mate, however, and a majority of the crew shall remain on
board the corsair vessel, and continue to tow us. The 'Horn o'
Plenty' sails better stern foremost, and we shall go faster that
way."

The boys were overjoyed at recovering their fruit, and most of them
were in favor of cracking two or three of the great nuts, and eating
their contents in honor of the occasion, but the eldest boy dissuaded
them.

"The good Captain," he said, "has been very kind in endeavoring to
take us back to our school, and still intends to keep up the search
for dear old Apple Island. The least we can do for him is to give him
this fruit, which is all we have, and let him do what he pleases with
it. This is the only way in which we can show our gratitude to him."

The boys turned their backs on one another, and each of them gave his
eyes a little rub, but they all agreed to give the fruit to the
Captain.

When the good old man received his present, he was much affected. "I
will accept what you offer me," he said; "for if I did not, I know
your feelings would be wounded. But you must keep one of the nuts for
yourselves. And, more than that, if we do not find Apple Island in
the course of the coming year, I invite you all to spend Christmas
before last over again, with me at my son's house."

All that winter, the two ships sailed up and down, and here and
there, but never could they find Apple Island. When Christmas-time
came, old Baragat went around among the boys and the crew, and told
them it would be well not to say a word on the subject to the
Captain, for his feelings were very tender in regard to spending
Christmas away from his families, and the thing had never happened
before. So nobody made any allusion to the holidays, and they passed
over as if they had been ordinary days.

During the spring, and all through the summer, the two ships kept up
the unavailing search, but when the autumn began, Captain Covajos
said to old Baragat: "I am very sorry, but I feel that I can no
longer look for Apple Island. I must go back and spend Christmas
before last over again, with my dearest son; and if these poor boys
never return to their homes, I am sure they cannot say it was any
fault of mine."

"No, sir," said Baragat, "I think you have done all that could be
expected of you."

So the ships sailed to the city on the west side of the sea; and the
Captain was received with great joy by his son, and his
grandchildren. He went to the merchants, and told them how he had
lost all their money. He hoped they would be able to bear their
misfortune with fortitude, and begged, as he could do nothing else
for them, that they would accept the eight great nuts from the
Fragile Palm that the boys had given him. To his surprise the
merchants became wild with delight when they received the nuts. The
money they had lost was as nothing, they said, compared to the value
of this incomparable and precious fruit, picked in its prime, and
still in a perfect condition.

It had been many, many generations since this rare fruit, the value
of which was like unto that of diamonds and pearls, had been for sale
in any market in the world; and kings and queens in many countries
were ready to give for it almost any price that might be asked.

When the good old Captain heard this he was greatly rejoiced, and, as
the holidays were now near, he insisted that the boys should spend
Christmas before last over again, at his son's house. He found that a
good many people here knew where Apple Island was, and he made
arrangements for the First Class in Long Division to return to that
island in a vessel which was to sail about the first of the year.

The boys still possessed the great nut which the Captain had insisted
they should keep for themselves, and he now told them that if they
chose to sell it, they would each have a nice little fortune to take
back with them. The eldest boy consulted the others, and then he said
to the Captain:

"Our class has gone through a good many hardships, and has had a lot
of trouble with that palm-tree and other things, and we think we
ought to be rewarded. So, if it is all the same to you, I think we
will crack the nut on Christmas Day and we all will eat it."

"I never imagined," cried Captain Covajos, as he sat, on that
Christmas Day, surrounded by his son's family and the First Class in
Long Division, the eyes of the whole party sparkling with ecstasy as
they tasted the peerless fruit of the Fragile Palm, "that Christmas
before last could be so joyfully celebrated over again."





 PRINCE HASSAK'S MARCH.

       *       *       *       *       *

In the spring of a certain year, long since passed away, Prince
Hassak, of Itoby, determined to visit his uncle, the King of Yan.

"Whenever my uncle visited us," said the Prince, "or when my late
father went to see him, the journey was always made by sea; and, in
order to do this, it was necessary to go in a very roundabout way
between Itoby and Yan. Now, I shall do nothing of this kind. It is
beneath the dignity of a prince to go out of his way on account of
capes, peninsulas, and promontories. I shall march from my palace to
that of my uncle in a straight line. I shall go across the country,
and no obstacle shall cause me to deviate from my course. Mountains
and hills shall be tunnelled, rivers shall be bridged, houses shall
be levelled; a road shall be cut through forests; and, when I have
finished my march, the course over which I have passed shall be a
mathematically straight line. Thus will I show to the world that,
when a prince desires to travel, it is not necessary for him to go
out of his way on account of obstacles."

As soon as possible after the Prince had determined upon this march,
he made his preparations, and set out. He took with him a
few courtiers, and a large body of miners, rock-splitters,
bridge-builders, and workmen of that class, whose services would,
very probably, be needed. Besides these, he had an officer whose duty
it was to point out the direct course to be taken, and another who
was to draw a map of the march, showing the towns, mountains, and the
various places it passed through. There were no compasses in those
days, but the course-marker had an instrument which he would set in a
proper direction by means of the stars, and then he could march by it
all day. Besides these persons, Prince Hassak selected from the
schools of his city five boys and five girls, and took them with him.
He wished to show them how, when a thing was to be done, the best way
was to go straight ahead and do it, turning aside for nothing.

"When they grow up they will teach these things to their children,"
said he; "and thus I shall instil good principles into my people."

The first day Prince Hassak and his party marched over a level
country, with no further trouble than that occasioned by the tearing
down of fences and walls, and the destruction of a few cottages and
barns. After encamping for the night, they set out the next morning,
but had not marched many miles before they came to a rocky hill, on
the top of which was a handsome house, inhabited by a Jolly-cum-pop.

"Your Highness," said the course-marker, "in order to go in a direct
line we must make a tunnel through this hill, immediately under the
house. This may cause the building to fall in, but the rubbish can be
easily removed."

"Let the men go to work," said the Prince. "I will dismount from my
horse, and watch the proceedings."

When the Jolly-cum-pop saw the party halt before his house, he
hurried out to pay his respects to the Prince. When he was informed
of what was to be done, the Jolly-cum-pop could not refrain from
laughing aloud.

"I never heard," he said, "of such a capital idea. It is so odd and
original. It will be very funny, I am sure, to see a tunnel cut right
under my house."

The miners and rock-splitters now began to work at the base of the
hill, and then the Jolly-cum-pop made a proposition to the Prince.

"It will take your men some time," he said, "to cut this tunnel, and
it is a pity your Highness should not be amused in the meanwhile. It
is a fine day: suppose we go into the forest and hunt."

This suited the Prince very well, for he did not care about sitting
under a tree and watching his workmen, and the Jolly-cum-pop having
sent for his horse and some bows and arrows, the whole party, with
the exception of the laborers, rode toward the forest, a short
distance away.

"What shall we find to hunt?" asked the Prince of the Jolly-cum-pop.

"I really do not know," exclaimed the latter, "but we'll hunt
whatever we happen to see--deer, small birds, rabbits, griffins,
rhinoceroses, any thing that comes along. I feel as gay as a skipping
grasshopper. My spirits rise like a soaring bird. What a joyful thing
it is to have such a hunt on such a glorious day!"

The gay and happy spirits of the Jolly-cum-pop affected the whole
party, and they rode merrily through the forest; but they found no
game; and, after an hour or two, they emerged into the open country
again. At a distance, on a slight elevation, stood a large and
massive building.

"I am hungry and thirsty," said the Prince, "and perhaps we can get
some refreshments at yonder house. So far, this has not been a very
fine hunt."

"No," cried the Jolly-cum-pop, "not yet. But what a joyful thing to
see a hospitable mansion just at the moment when we begin to feel a
little tired and hungry!"

The building they were approaching belonged to a Potentate, who lived
at a great distance. In some of his travels he had seen this massive
house, and thought it would make a good prison. He accordingly bought
it, fitted it up as a jail, and appointed a jailer and three
myrmidons to take charge of it. This had occurred years before, but
no prisoners had ever been sent to this jail. A few days preceding
the Jolly-cum-pop's hunt, the Potentate had journeyed this way and
had stopped at his jail. After inquiring into its condition, he had
said to the jailer:

"It is now fourteen years since I appointed you to this place, and in
all that time there have been no prisoners, and you and your men have
been drawing your wages without doing any thing. I shall return this
way in a few days, and if I still find you idle I shall discharge you
all and close the jail."

This filled the jailer with great dismay, for he did not wish to lose
his good situation. When he saw the Prince and his party approaching,
the thought struck him that perhaps he might make prisoners of them,
and so not be found idle when the Potentate returned. He came out to
meet the hunters, and when they asked if they could here find
refreshment, he gave them a most cordial welcome. His men took their
horses, and, inviting them to enter, he showed each member of the
party into a small bedroom, of which there seemed to be a great many.

"Here are water and towels," he said to each one, "and when you have
washed your face and hands, your refreshments will be ready." Then,
going out, he locked the door on the outside.

The party numbered seventeen: the Prince, three courtiers, five boys,
five girls, the course-marker, the map-maker, and the Jolly-cum-pop.
The heart of the jailer was joyful; seventeen inmates was something
to be proud of. He ordered his myrmidons to give the prisoners a meal
of bread and water through the holes in their cell-doors, and then he
sat down to make out his report to the Potentate.

"They must all be guilty of crimes," he said to himself, "which are
punished by long imprisonment. I don't want any of them executed."

So he numbered his prisoners from one to seventeen, according to the
cell each happened to be in, and he wrote a crime opposite each
number. The first was highway robbery, the next forgery, and after
that followed treason, smuggling, barn-burning, bribery, poaching,
usury, piracy, witchcraft, assault and battery, using false weights
and measures, burglary, counterfeiting, robbing hen-roosts,
conspiracy, and poisoning his grandmother by proxy.

This report was scarcely finished when the Potentate returned. He was
very much surprised to find that seventeen prisoners had come in
since his previous visit, and he read the report with interest.

"Here is one who ought to be executed," he said, referring to Number
Seventeen. "And how did he poison his grandmother by proxy? Did he
get another woman to be poisoned in her stead? Or did he employ some
one to act in his place as the poisoner?"

"I have not yet been fully informed, my lord," said the jailer,
fearful that he should lose a prisoner; "but this is his first
offence, and his grandmother, who did not die, has testified to his
general good character."

"Very well," said the Potentate; "but if he ever does it again, let
him be executed; and, by the way, I should like to see the
prisoners."

Thereupon the jailer conducted the Potentate along the corridors, and
let him look through the holes in the doors at the prisoners within.

"What is this little girl in for?" he asked.

The jailer looked at the number over the door, and then at his
report.

"Piracy," he answered.

"A strange offence for such a child," said the Potentate.

"They often begin that sort of thing very early in life," said the
jailer.

"And this fine gentleman," said the Potentate, looking in at the
Prince, "what did he do?"

The jailer glanced at the number, and the report.

"Robbed hen-roosts," he said.

"He must have done a good deal of it to afford to dress so well,"
said the Potentate, passing on, and looking into other cells. "It
seems to me that many of your prisoners are very young."

"It is best to take them young, my lord," said the jailer. "They are
very hard to catch when they grow up."

The Potentate then looked in at the Jolly-cum-pop, and asked what was
his offence.

"Conspiracy," was the answer.

"And where are the other conspirators?"

"There was only one," said the jailer.

Number Seventeen was the oldest of the courtiers.

"He appears to be an elderly man to have a grandmother," said the
Potentate. "She must be very aged, and that makes it all the worse
for him. I think he should be executed."

"Oh, no, my lord," cried the jailor. "I am assured that his crime was
quite unintentional."

"Then he should be set free," said the Potentate.

"I mean to say," said the jailer, "that it was just enough
intentional to cause him to be imprisoned here for a long time, but
not enough to deserve execution."

"Very well," said the Potentate, turning to leave; "take good care of
your prisoners, and send me a report every month."

"That will I do, my lord," said the jailer, bowing very low.

The Prince and his party had been very much surprised and incensed
when they found that they could not get out of their rooms, and they
had kicked and banged and shouted until they were tired, but the
jailer had informed them that they were to be confined there for
years; and when the Potentate arrived they had resigned themselves to
despair. The Jolly-cum-pop, however, was affected in a different way.
It seemed to him the most amusing joke in the world that a person
should deliberately walk into a prison-cell and be locked up for
several years; and he lay down on his little bed and laughed himself
to sleep.

That night one of the boys sat at his iron-barred window, wide awake.
He was a Truant, and had never yet been in any place from which he
could not run away. He felt that his school-fellows depended upon him
to run away and bring them assistance, and he knew that his
reputation as a Truant was at stake. His responsibility was so heavy
that he could not sleep, and he sat at the window, trying to think of
a way to get out. After some hours the moon arose, and by its light
he saw upon the grass, not far from his window, a number of little
creatures, which at first he took for birds or small squirrels; but
on looking more attentively he perceived that they were pigwidgeons.
They were standing around a flat stone, and seemed to be making
calculations on it with a piece of chalk. At this sight, the heart of
the Truant jumped for joy. "Pigwidgeons can do any thing," he said to
himself, "and these certainly can get us out." He now tried in
various ways to attract the attention of the pigwidgeons; but as he
was afraid to call or whistle very loud, for fear of arousing the
jailor, he did not succeed. Happily, he thought of a pea-shooter
which he had in his pocket, and taking this out he blew a pea into
the midst of the little group with such force that it knocked the
chalk from the hand of the pigwidgeon who was using it. The little
fellows looked up in astonishment, and perceived the Truant beckoning
to them from his window. At first they stood angrily regarding him;
but on his urging them in a loud whisper to come to his relief, they
approached the prison and, clambering up a vine, soon reached his
window-sill. The Truant now told his mournful tale, to which the
pigwidgeons listened very attentively; and then, after a little
consultation among themselves, one of them said: "We will get you out
if you will tell us how to divide five-sevenths by six."

The poor Truant was silent for an instant, and then he said: "That is
not the kind of thing I am good at, but I expect some of the other
fellows could tell you easily enough. Our windows must be all in a
row, and you can climb up and ask some of them; and if any one tells
you, will you get us all out?"

"Yes," said the pigwidgeon who had spoken before. "We will do that,
for we are very anxious to know how to divide five-sevenths by six.
We have been working at it for four or five days, and there won't be
any thing worth dividing if we wait much longer."

The pigwidgeons now began to descend the vine; but one of them
lingering a little, the Truant, who had a great deal of curiosity,
asked him what it was they had to divide.

"There were eight of us," the pigwidgeon answered, "who helped a
farmer's wife, and she gave us a pound of butter. She did not count
us properly, and divided the butter into seven parts. We did not
notice this at first, and two of the party, who were obliged to go
away to a distance, took their portions and departed, and now we can
not divide among six the five-sevenths that remain."

"That is a pretty hard thing," said the Truant, "but I am sure some
of the boys can tell you how to do it."

The pigwidgeons visited the next four cells, which were occupied by
four boys, but not one of them could tell how to divide five-sevenths
by six. The Prince was questioned, but he did not know; and neither
did the course-marker, nor the map-maker. It was not until they came
to the cell of the oldest girl that they received an answer. She was
good at mental arithmetic; and, after a minute's thought, she said,
"It would be five forty-seconds."

"Good!" cried the pigwidgeons. "We will divide the butter into
forty-two parts, and each take five. And now let us go to work and
cut these bars."

Three of the six pigwidgeons were workers in iron, and they had their
little files and saws in pouches by their sides. They went to work
manfully, and the others helped them, and before morning one bar was
cut in each of the seventeen windows. The cells were all on the
ground floor, and it was quite easy for the prisoners to clamber out.
That is, it was easy for all but the Jolly-cum-pop. He had laughed so
much in his life that he had grown quite fat, and he found it
impossible to squeeze himself through the opening made by the removal
of one iron bar. The sixteen other prisoners had all departed; the
pigwidgeons had hurried away to divide their butter into forty-two
parts, and the Jolly-cum-pop still remained in his cell, convulsed
with laughter at the idea of being caught in such a curious
predicament.

"It is the most ridiculous thing in the world," he said. "I suppose I
must stay here and cry until I get thin." And the idea so tickled
him, that he laughed himself to sleep.

The Prince and his party kept together, and hurried from the prison
as fast as they could. When the day broke they had gone several
miles, and then they stopped to rest. "Where is that Jolly-cum-pop?"
said the Prince. "I suppose he has gone home. He is a pretty fellow
to lead us into this trouble and then desert us! How are we to find
the way back to his house? Course-marker, can you tell us the
direction in which we should go?"

"Not until to-night, your Highness," answered the course-marker,
"when I can set my instrument by the stars."

The Prince's party was now in a doleful plight. Every one was very
hungry; they were in an open plain, no house was visible, and they
knew not which way to go. They wandered about for some time, looking
for a brook or a spring where they might quench their thirst; and
then a rabbit sprang out from some bushes. The whole party
immediately started off in pursuit of the rabbit. They chased it
here, there, backward and forward, through hollows and over hills,
until it ran quite away and disappeared. Then they were more tired,
thirsty, and hungry than before; and, to add to their miseries, when
night came on the sky was cloudy, and the course-marker could not set
his instrument by the stars. It would be difficult to find sixteen
more miserable people than the Prince and his companions when they
awoke the next morning from their troubled sleep on the hard ground.
Nearly starved, they gazed at one another with feelings of despair.

"I feel," said the Prince, in a weak voice, "that there is nothing I
would not do to obtain food. I would willingly become a slave if my
master would give me a good breakfast."

"So would I," ejaculated each of the others.

About an hour after this, as they were all sitting disconsolately
upon the ground, they saw, slowly approaching, a large cart drawn by
a pair of oxen. On the front of the cart, which seemed to be heavily
loaded, sat a man, with a red beard, reading a book. The boys, when
they saw the cart, set up a feeble shout, and the man, lifting his
eyes from his book, drove directly toward the group on the ground.
Dismounting, he approached Prince Hassak, who immediately told him
his troubles and implored relief. "We will do any thing," said the
Prince, "to obtain food."

Standing for a minute in a reflective mood, the man with the red
beard addressed the Prince in a slow, meditative manner: "How would
you like," he said, "to form a nucleus?"

"Can we get any thing to eat by it?" eagerly asked the Prince.

"Yes," replied the man, "you can."

"We'll do it!" immediately cried the whole sixteen, without waiting
for further information.

"Which will you do first," said the man, "listen to my explanations,
or eat?"

"Eat!" cried the entire sixteen in chorus.

The man now produced from his cart a quantity of bread, meat, wine,
and other provisions, which he distributed generously, but
judiciously, to the hungry Prince and his followers. Every one had
enough, but no one too much. And soon, revived and strengthened, they
felt like new beings.

"Now," said the Prince, "we are ready to form a nucleus, as we
promised. How is it done?"

"I will explain the matter to you in a few words," said the man with
the red beard. "For a long time I have been desirous to found a city.
In order to do this one must begin by forming a nucleus. Every great
city is started from a nucleus. A few persons settle down in some
particular spot, and live there. Then they are a nucleus. Then other
people come there, and gather around this nucleus, and then more
people come and more, until in course of time there is a great city.
I have loaded this cart with provisions, tools, and other things that
are necessary for my purpose, and have set out to find some people
who would be willing to form a nucleus. I am very glad to have found
you and that you are willing to enter into my plan; and this seems a
good spot for us to settle upon."

"What is the first thing to be done?" said the Prince.

"We must all go to work," said the man with the red beard, "to build
dwellings, and also a school-house for these young people. Then we
must till some ground in the suburbs, and lay the foundations, at
least, of a few public buildings."

"All this will take a good while, will it not?" said the Prince.

"Yes," said the man, "it will take a good while; and the sooner we
set about it, the better."

Thereupon tools were distributed among the party, and Prince,
courtiers, boys, girls, and all went to work to build houses and form
the nucleus of a city.

When the jailer looked into his cells in the morning, and found that
all but one of his prisoners had escaped, he was utterly astounded,
and his face, when the Jolly-cum-pop saw him, made that individual
roar with laughter. The jailer, however, was a man accustomed to deal
with emergencies. "You need not laugh," he said, "every thing shall
go on as before, and I shall take no notice of the absence of your
companions. You are now numbered One to Seventeen inclusive, and you
stand charged with highway robbery, forgery, treason, smuggling,
barn-burning, bribery, poaching, usury, piracy, witchcraft, assault
and battery, using false weights and measures, burglary,
counterfeiting, robbing hen-roosts, conspiracy, and poisoning your
grandmother by proxy. I intended to-day to dress the convicts in
prison garb, and you shall immediately be so clothed."

"I shall require seventeen suits," said the Jolly-cum-pop.

"Yes," said the jailer, "they shall be furnished."

"And seventeen rations a day," said the Jolly-cum-pop.

"Certainly," replied the jailer.

"This is luxury," roared the Jolly-cum-pop. "I shall spend my whole
time in eating and putting on clean clothes."

Seventeen large prison suits were now brought to the Jolly-cum-pop.
He put one on, and hung up the rest in his cell. These suits were
half bright yellow and half bright green, with spots of bright red,
as big as saucers.

The jailer now had doors cut from one cell to another. "If the
Potentate comes here and wants to look at the prisoners," he said to
the Jolly-cum-pop, "you must appear in cell number One, so that he
can look through the hole in the door, and see you; then, as he walks
along the corridor, you must walk through the cells, and whenever he
looks into a cell, you must be there."

"He will think," merrily replied the Jolly-cum-pop, "that all your
prisoners are very fat, and that the little girls have grown up into
big men."

"I will endeavor to explain that," said the jailer.

For several days the Jolly-cum-pop was highly amused at the idea of
his being seventeen criminals, and he would sit first in one cell and
then in another, trying to look like a ferocious pirate, a
hard-hearted usurer, or a mean-spirited chicken thief, and laughing
heartily at his failures. But, after a time, he began to tire of
this, and to have a strong desire to see what sort of a tunnel the
Prince's miners and rock-splitters were making under his house. "I
had hoped," he said to himself, "that I should pine away in
confinement, and so be able to get through the window-bars; but with
nothing to do, and seventeen rations a day, I see no chance of that.
But I must get out of this jail, and, as there seems no other way, I
will revolt." Thereupon he shouted to the jailer through the hole in
the door of his cell: "We have revolted! We have risen in a body, and
have determined to resist your authority, and break jail!"

When the jailer heard this, he was greatly troubled. "Do not proceed
to violence," he said; "let us parley."

"Very well," replied the Jolly-cum-pop, "but you must open the cell
door. We cannot parley through a hole."

The jailer thereupon opened the cell door, and the Jolly-cum-pop,
having wrapped sixteen suits of clothes around his left arm as a
shield, and holding in his right hand the iron bar which had been cut
from his window, stepped boldly into the corridor, and confronted the
jailer and his myrmidons.

"It will be useless for you to resist," he said. "You are but four,
and we are seventeen. If you had been wise you would have made us all
cheating shop-keepers, chicken thieves, or usurers. Then you might
have been able to control us; but when you see before you a desperate
highwayman, a daring smuggler, a blood-thirsty pirate, a wily
poacher, a powerful ruffian, a reckless burglar, a bold conspirator,
and a murderer by proxy, you well may tremble!"

The jailer and his myrmidons looked at each other in dismay.

"We sigh for no blood," continued the Jolly-cum-pop, "and will
readily agree to terms. We will give you your choice: Will you allow
us to honorably surrender, and peacefully disperse to our homes, or
shall we rush upon you in a body, and, after overpowering you by
numbers, set fire to the jail, and escape through the crackling
timbers of the burning pile?"

The jailer reflected for a minute. "It would be better, perhaps," he
said, "that you should surrender and disperse to your homes."

The Jolly-cum-pop agreed to these terms, and the great gate being
opened, he marched out in good order. "Now," said he to himself, "the
thing for me to do is to get home as fast as I can, or that jailer
may change his mind." But, being in a great hurry, he turned the
wrong way, and walked rapidly into a country unknown to him. His walk
was a very merry one. "By this time," he said to himself, "the Prince
and his followers have returned to my house, and are tired of
watching the rock-splitters and miners. How amused they will be when
they see me come back in this gay suit of green and yellow, with red
spots, and with sixteen similar suits upon my arm! How my own dogs
will bark at me! And how my own servants will not know me! It is the
funniest thing I ever knew of!" And his gay laugh echoed far and
wide. But when he had gone several miles without seeing any signs of
his habitation, his gayety abated. "It would have been much better,"
he said, as he sat down to rest under the shade of a tree, "if I had
brought with me sixteen rations instead of these sixteen suits of
clothes."

The Jolly-cum-pop soon set out again, but he walked a long distance
without seeing any person or any house. Toward the close of the
afternoon he stopped, and, looking back, he saw coming toward him a
large party of foot travellers. In a few moments, he perceived that
the person in advance was the jailer. At this the Jolly-cum-pop could
not restrain his merriment. "How comically it has all turned out!" he
exclaimed. "Here I've taken all this trouble, and tired myself out,
and have nearly starved myself, and the jailer comes now, with a
crowd of people, and takes me back. I might as well have staid where
I was. Ha! ha!"

The jailer now left his party and came running toward the
Jolly-cum-pop. "I pray you, sir," he said, bowing very low, "do not
cast us off."

"Who are you all?" asked the Jolly-cum-pop, looking with much
surprise at the jailer's companions, who were now quite near.

"We are myself, my three myrmidons, and our wives and children. Our
situations were such good ones that we married long ago, and our
families lived in the upper stories of the prison. But when all the
convicts had left we were afraid to remain, for, should the Potentate
again visit the prison, he would be disappointed and enraged at
finding no prisoners, and would, probably, punish us grievously. So
we determined to follow you, and to ask you to let us go with you,
wherever you are going. I wrote a report, which I fastened to the
great gate, and in it I stated that sixteen of the convicts escaped
by the aid of outside confederates, and that seventeen of them
mutinied in a body and broke jail."

"That report," laughed the Jolly-cum-pop, "your Potentate will not
readily understand."

"If I were there," said the jailer, "I could explain it to him; but,
as it is, he must work it out for himself."

"Have you any thing to eat with you?" asked the Jolly-cum-pop.

"Oh, yes," said the jailer, "we brought provisions."

"Well, then, I gladly take you under my protection. Let us have
supper. I have had nothing to eat since morning, and the weight of
sixteen extra suits of clothes does not help to refresh one."

The Jolly-cum-pop and his companions slept that night under some
trees, and started off early the next morning. "If I could only get
myself turned in the proper direction," said he, "I believe we should
soon reach my house."

The Prince, his courtiers, the boys and girls, the course-marker, and
the map-maker worked industriously for several days at the foundation
of their city. They dug the ground, they carried stones, they cut
down trees. This work was very hard for all of them, for they were
not used to it. After a few days' labor, the Prince said to the man
with the red beard, who was reading his book: "I think we have now
formed a nucleus. Any one can see that this is intended to be a
city."

"No," said the man with the red beard, "nothing is truly a nucleus
until something is gathered around it. Proceed with your work, while
I continue my studies upon civil government."

Toward the close of that day the red-bearded man raised his eyes from
his book and beheld the Jolly-cum-pop and his party approaching.
"Hurrah!" he cried, "we are already attracting settlers!" And he went
forth to meet them.

When the prince and the courtiers saw the Jolly-cum-pop in his bright
and variegated dress, they did not know him; but the boys and girls
soon recognized his jovial face, and, tired as they were, they set up
a hearty laugh, in which they were loudly joined by their merry
friend. While the Jolly-cum-pop was listening to the adventures of
the Prince and his companions, and telling what had happened to
himself, the man with the red beard was talking to the jailer and his
party, and urging them to gather around the nucleus which had been
here formed, and help to build a city.

"Nothing will suit us better," exclaimed the jailer, "and the sooner
we build a town wall so as to keep off the Potentate, if he should
come this way, the better shall we be satisfied."

The next morning, the Prince said to the red-bearded man: "Others
have gathered around us. We have formed a nucleus, and thus have done
all that we promised to do. We shall now depart."

The man objected strongly to this, but the Prince paid no attention
to his words. "What troubles me most," he said to the Jolly-cum-pop,
"is the disgraceful condition of our clothes. They have been so torn
and soiled during our unaccustomed work that they are not fit to be
seen."

"As for that," said the Jolly-cum-pop, "I have sixteen suits with me,
in which you can all dress, if you like. They are of unusual
patterns, but they are new and clean."

"It is better," said the Prince, "for persons in my station to appear
inordinately gay than to be seen in rags and dirt. We will accept
your clothes."

Thereupon, the Prince and each of the others put on a prison dress of
bright green and yellow, with large red spots. There were some
garments left over, for each boy wore only a pair of trousers with
the waistband tied around his neck, and holes cut for his arms; while
the large jackets, with the sleeves tucked, made very good dresses
for the girls. The Prince and his party, accompanied by the
Jolly-cum-pop, now left the red-bearded man and his new settlers to
continue the building of the city, and set off on their journey. The
course-marker had not been informed the night before that they were
to go away that morning, and consequently did not set his instrument
by the stars.

"As we do not know in which way we should go," said the Prince, "one
way will be as good as another, and if we can find a road let us take
it; it will be easier walking."

In an hour or two they found a road and they took it. After
journeying the greater part of the day, they reached the top of a low
hill, over which the road ran, and saw before them a glittering sea
and the spires and houses of a city.

"It is the city of Yan," said the course-marker.

"That is true," said the Prince; "and as we are so near, we may as
well go there."

The astonishment of the people of Yan, when this party, dressed in
bright green and yellow, with red spots, passed through their
streets, was so great that the Jolly-cum-pop roared with laughter.
This set the boys and girls and all the people laughing, and the
sounds of merriment became so uproarious that when they reached the
palace the King came out to see what was the matter. What he thought
when he saw his nephew in his fantastic guise, accompanied by a party
apparently composed of sixteen other lunatics, cannot now be known;
but, after hearing the Prince's story, he took him into an inner
apartment, and thus addressed him: "My dear Hassak: The next time you
pay me a visit, I beg for your sake and my own, that you will come in
the ordinary way. You have sufficiently shown to the world that, when
a Prince desires to travel, it is often necessary for him to go out
of his way on account of obstacles."

"My dear uncle," replied Hassak, "your words shall not be forgotten."

After a pleasant visit of a few weeks, the Prince and his party (in
new clothes) returned (by sea) to Itoby, whence the Jolly-cum-pop
soon repaired to his home. There he found the miners and
rock-splitters still at work at the tunnel, which had now penetrated
half-way through the hill on which stood his house. "You may go
home," he said, "for the Prince has changed his plans. I will put a
door to this tunnel, and it will make an excellent cellar in which to
keep my wine and provisions."

The day after the Prince's return his map-maker said to him: "Your
Highness, according to your commands I made, each day, a map of your
progress to the city of Yan. Here it is."

The Prince glanced at it and then he cast his eyes upon the floor.
"Leave me," he said. "I would be alone."

[Illustration: THE MAP OF THE PRINCE'S JOURNEY FROM ITOBY TO YAN.]





 THE BATTLE OF THE THIRD COUSINS.

       *       *       *       *       *

There were never many persons who could correctly bound the Autocracy
of Mutjado. The reason for this was that the boundary line was not
stationary. Whenever the Autocrat felt the need of money, he sent his
tax-gatherers far and wide, and people who up to that time had no
idea of such a thing found that they lived in the territory of
Mutjado. But when times were ordinarily prosperous with him, and
people in the outlying districts needed protection or public works,
the dominion of the Autocrat became very much contracted.

In the course of time, the Autocrat of Mutjado fell into bad health
and sent for his doctor. That learned man prescribed some medicine
for him; and as this did him no good, he ordered another kind. He
continued this method of treatment until the Autocrat had swallowed
the contents of fifteen phials and flasks, some large and some small.
As none of these were of the slightest benefit, the learned doctor
produced another kind of medicine which he highly extolled.

"Take a dose of this twice a day," said he, "and you will soon
find--"

"A new medicine?" interrupted the Autocrat, in disgust. "I will have
none of it! These others were bad enough, and rather than start with
a new physic, I prefer to die. Take away your bottles, little and
big, and send me my secretary."

When that officer arrived, the Autocrat informed him that he had
determined to write his will, and that he should set about it at
once.

The Autocrat of Mutjado had no son, and his nearest male relatives
were a third cousin on his father's side, and another third cousin on
his mother's side. Of course these persons were in nowise related to
each other; and as they lived in distant countries, he had never seen
either of them. He had made up his mind to leave his throne and
dominions to one of these persons, but he could not determine which
of them should be his heir.

"One has as good a right as the other," he said to himself, "and I
can't bother my brains settling the matter for them. Let them fight
it out, and whoever conquers shall be Autocrat of Mutjado."

Having arranged the affair in this manner in his will, he signed it,
and soon after died.

The Autocrat's third cousin on his father's side was a young man of
about twenty-five, named Alberdin. He was a good horseman, and
trained in the arts of warfare, and when he was informed of the terms
of his distinguished relative's will, he declared himself perfectly
willing to undertake the combat for the throne. He set out for
Mutjado, where he arrived in a reasonable time.