Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia | Page 4

country people whom I met called it Ethiopia. They were niggers."
"And in what part of the globe is Ethiopia, Ricardo?"
"Oh! I don't know. Asia, perhaps," answered the prince.
The king groaned.
"That boy will never understand our foreign relations. Ethiopia in Asia!" he said to himself, but he did not choose to make any remark at the moment.
The prince ran upstairs to dress. On the stairs he met the Princess Jaqueline.
"Oh, Dick! are you hurt?" she said, turning very pale.
"No, not I; but the monster is. I had a capital day, Jack; rescued a princess, too."
"Was she--was she very pretty, Dick?"
"Oh! I don't know. Pretty enough, I daresay. Much like other girls. Why, you look quite white! What's the matter? Now you look all right again;" for, indeed, the Princess Jaqueline was blushing.
"I must dress. I'm ever so late," he said, hurrying upstairs; and the princess, with a little sigh, went down to the royal drawing-room.
CHAPTER II.
Princess Jaqueline Drinks the Moon.
{The King and the Prince: p30.jpg}
When dinner was over and the ladies had left the room, the king tried to speak seriously to Prince Ricardo. This was a thing which he disliked doing very much.
"There's very little use in preaching," his Majesty used to say, "to a man, or rather a boy, of another generation. My taste was for books; I only took to adventures because I was obliged to do it. Dick's taste is for adventures; I only wish some accident would make him take to books. But everyone must get his experience for himself; and when he has got it, he is lucky if it is not too late. I wish I could see him in love with some nice girl, who would keep him at home."
The king did not expect much from talking seriously to Dick. However, he began by asking questions about the day's sport, which Ricardo answered with modesty. Then his Majesty observed that, from all he had ever read or heard, he believed Ethiopia, where the fight was, to be in Africa, not in Asia.
"I really wish, Ricardo, that you would attend to your geography a little more. It is most necessary to a soldier that he should know where his enemy is, and if he has to fight the Dutch, for instance, not to start with his army for Central Asia."
"I could always spot them through the magic glass, father," said Dick; "it saves such a lot of trouble. I hate geography."
"But the glass might be lost or broken, or the Fairies might take it away, and then where are you?"
"Oh, you would know where to go, or Mr. Belsham."
Now Mr. Belsham was his tutor, from Oxford.
"But I shall not always be here, and when I die--"
"Don't talk of dying, sire," said Dick. "Why, you are not so very old; you may live for years yet. Besides, I can't stand the notion. You must live for ever!"
"That sentiment is unusual in a Crown Prince," thought the king; but he was pleased for all that.
"Well, to oblige you, I'll try to struggle against old age," he said; "but there are always accidents. Now, Dick, like a good fellow, and to please me, work hard all to-morrow till the afternoon. I'll come in and help you. And there's always a splendid evening rise of trout in the lake just now, so you can have your play after your work. You'll enjoy it more, and I daresay you are tired after a long day with the big game. It used to tire me, I remember."
"I am rather tired," said Dick; and indeed he looked a little pale, for a day in the inside of a gigantic sea-monster is fatiguing, from the heat and want of fresh air which are usually found in such places. "I think I'll turn in; goodnight, my dear old governor," he said, in an affectionate manner, though he was not usually given to many words.
Then he went and kissed his mother and the Princess Jaqueline, whom he engaged to row him on the lake next evening, while he fished.
"And don't you go muffing them with the landing-net, Jack, as you generally do," said his Royal Highness, as he lit his bedroom candle.
"I wish he would not call me Jack," said the princess to the queen.
"It's better than Lina, my dear," said her Majesty, who in late life had become fond of her little joke; "that always sounds as if someone else was fatter,--and I hope there is not someone else."
The princess was silent, and fixed her eyes on her book.
Presently the king came in, and played a game with Lina at picquet. When they were all going to bed, he said:
"Just come into the study, Lina. I want you to write a few letters for me."
The princess followed him and took her seat at