Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia | Page 4

keeper, who had not previously been employed by a Reigning
Family. "It's a fine head, whatever," he added, meditatively.
{Ross weighing the beast's head: p28.jpg}
Prince Ricardo now came beneath the library window, and gave his
parents a brief account of his adventure.
"I picked the monster up early in the morning," he said, "through the
magic telescope, father."
"What country was he in?" said the king.

"The 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