Page:Tudor Jenks--Imaginotions.djvu/125

107 My niece said in her winning way that she did n't care a button for precedent, and that several great men had called attention to the fact that there could n't be a precedent for anything the first time it was done.

"I won't argue," said the King; "but I will only say, I forbid it."

Then, to my secret amusement, my niece said very sweetly, as she toyed with a sprig of celery, that she was not fond of argument herself, and therefore would only say that she would then and there turn the king into a canvasback duck, unless he consented to the wedding.

"I defy you!" said the King.

My niece clapped her hands, and he became a canvasback duck.