The Surprising Adventures of the Magical Monarch of Mo and His People | Page 8

and look
into this hole, and while he is leaning over the edge, push him in. Of
course, he will not die, for that, as you say, is impossible; but no one
will know where to find him. So, your father being out of the way, you
will be king in his place."
"That is surely good advice," said the Prince, "and I will go and do it at
once. Then the cow with the golden horns will be mine, and I shall
become the Monarch of Mo."
The Prince turned to go back to the palace, and as soon as he was out of
sight, the horrid Dragon laughed to think what a fool it had made of the
boy.
When Zingle saw his father he called him aside and said:
"Your Majesty, I have discovered something very funny at the bottom
of the hole near the peanut trees. Come and see what it is."
So the King went with the Prince, without suspecting his evil design,
and while he leaned over the hole the Prince gave him a sudden push.
The next moment down fell the Monarch of Mo--way to the bottom!
Then Prince Zingle went back to the palace and began to milk the cow
with the golden horns.
Now when the King found himself at the bottom of the hole he at first
did not know what to do; so he sat down and thought about it. Presently
a happy idea came into his head. He knew if only he was at the other
end of the hole, he would be at the top instead of the bottom, and could

make his escape. So the King took hold of the hole, and exerting all his
strength, turned the hole upside down. Being now at the top he stepped
upon the ground and walked back to the palace, where he caught Prince
Zingle milking the cow with the golden horns.
"Oh, ho!" he said, "you wish to be King, do you? Well, we'll see about
that!" Then he took the naughty Prince by the ear and led him into the
palace, where he locked him up in a room from which he could not
escape.
The King now sat himself down in an easy chair and began to think on
how he could best punish the Prince, but after an hour of deep thought
he was unable to decide on anything that seemed a sufficient
chastisement for so great an offense.
At last he resolved to consult the Wise Donkey.
The Wise Donkey lived in a pretty little house away at the end of the
Valley, for he didn't like to mix with the gay life at the court. He had
not always been wise, but at one time was a very stupid donkey indeed,
and he acquired his wisdom in this way.
One Friday afternoon, just as school was letting out, the stupid donkey
strayed into the school-house, and the teachers and scholars were all so
anxious to get home that they never noticed the donkey, but locked him
up in the school-house and went away without knowing he was there.
No one came into the building from Friday afternoon until Monday
morning; so the donkey got very hungry, and certainly would have
starved had he not chanced to taste of a geography that was sticking out
from one of the desks. The hungry donkey decided it was not so very
bad, so he ate it all up. Then he ate an arithmetic, an algebra, and two
first readers. After that he lay down and went to sleep; but becoming
hungry again he awoke and commenced on the school library, which he
completely devoured. This library comprised all the solid and
substantial wisdom in the Valley of Mo, and when the janitor opened
the school-house door on Monday morning, all the books of learning in
the whole land had been eaten up by the stupid donkey.

You can readily understand that after he had digested all this
knowledge he became very wise, and thereafter the King and the
people often consulted the Wise Donkey when their own intelligence
was at fault.
So now the monarch went to the donkey's house and told him of the
Prince's wickedness, asking how he could best punish him.
The Wise Donkey thought about the matter for a moment and then
replied:
"I do not know a worse punishment than a pain in the stomach. Among
the books I ate in the school-house was a trigonometry, and before I
had digested it I suffered very severe pains indeed."
"But I can not feed the Prince a trigonometry," returned the King. "You
ate the last one yourself."
"True," answered the donkey; "but there are other things that cause pain
in the stomach. You know