Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/303

1905.] “Very soon your Majesty may go. Just now it is your duty to hear the grievances of your people,” answered Tallydab, gently.

“What ’s the matter with ’em?” asked Bud, crossly. “Why don’t they keep out of trouble?”

“I do not know, your Majesty; but there are always disputes among the people.”

“But that is n’t the king's fault, is it?” said Bud.

“No, your Majesty; but it’s the king’s place to settle these disputes, for he has the supreme power.”

“Well, tell °em to hurry up and get it over with,” said the boy, restlessly.

Then a venerable old man came in leading a boy by the arm and holding a switch in his other hand.

“Vour Majesty,” began the man, having first humbly bowed to the floor before the king, “my son, whom I have brought here with me, insists upon running away from home, and I wish you would tell me what to do with him.”

“Why do you runaway?” Bud asked the boy.



“Because he whips me,” was the answer.

Bud turned to the man.

“Why do you whip the boy?” he inquired.

“Because he runs away,” said the man.

For a minute Bud looked puzzled.

“Well, if any one whipped me, I ’d run away, too,” he said at last, “And if the boy is n’t whipped or abused he ought to stay at home and be good. But it’s none of my business, anyhow.”

“Oh, your Majesty!” cried the chief counselor, “it really must be your business. You ‘re the king, you know; and everybody's business. is the king’s,”

“That is n’t fair,’ said Bud, sulkily. “I ’ve got my own business to attend to, and I want to go upstairs and play.”

But now Princess Fluff leaned toward the young king and whispered something in his ear which made his face brighten.

“See here!” exclaimed Bud, “the first time this man whips the boy again, or the first time the boy runs away, I order my lord high execu