Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/314

 he could never be clever. So the page was obliged to reconcile himself to his fate.

The whole of the first year the unfortunate young courtier spent his time in running to the baker's for bread for his master; and in washing and dressing the children. In the second year he did nothing but stop cracks with putty. In the third year he learnt how to cut glass and fix windows, and at last, at the commencement of the fourth year, he was made foreman.

After having been foreman for a whole year, he took leave of his master; and, dressing himself up once more in his court dress, he walked along the roads in deep thought, wondering how he could possibly become a king. As he was walking on a man came towards him, and, seeing that the young courtier was in deep thought, he stopped and asked him whether he had lost anything.

"Well, I don't know that I have exactly lost anything; but at any rate I cannot find what I want."

"And what is that?"

"A kingdom. I am wondering how on earth I can become a king."

"Well, if you had been a glazier," said the stranger, "I might have helped you."

"That is just exactly what I am!" exclaimed the other. "I have only lately been foreman to a glazier!"

"Then you have nothing to fear. You are no doubt aware that our king decided some time ago to give his youngest daughter in marriage to a glazier who was to be at the same time a king or at any rate a prince; but, as they have been unsuccessful in finding such a person, the king has been reluctantly obliged to modify his demands by adding two other conditions. The bridegroom must in any case be a glazier, that of course goes without saying."

"But what are the two conditions?" asked the young courtier, excitedly.

"The first condition is that he should please the princess; and the second is that he should be a nobleman by birth. There have already been a great number of glaziers applying at the palace, but not one of them took the princess's fancy, and all of them had coarse, rough hands like those of the commonest glazier."

When our young courtier heard these words, he jumped three times about a yard above the road for very joy, and then, turning round, ran helter-skelter back to the town, and presented himself at the palace in less than no time!

The king at once ordered the princess to be called, and when she arrived, he asked her whether this young glazier took her fancy. The princess glanced at the young man, and, recognising him at once, she blushed, and said: "Oh, yes."

The king ordered the young fellow to