_The Fourth Surprise_
THE PECULIAR PAINS OF FRUITCAKE ISLAND
Prince Zingle, who was the eldest of all the princes of the Valley ofMo, at one time became much irritated because the King, his father,would not allow him to milk the cow with the golden horns. This cow wasa great favorite with the King, because she gave as large a quantity ofice-cream at a milking as an ordinary cow does of milk, and in the warmdays this was an agreeable luxury. The King liked to keep the cow withthe golden horns for his own use and that of the Queen; so PrinceZingle thought he was being abused, having a great fondness forice-cream himself.
To be sure, there was the great fountain of ice-cream soda-waterplaying constantly in the courtyard, which was free to every one; butthe Prince longed for what he could not have.
Therefore, being filled with anger against his father, the King, hewandered away until he chanced to come near to the castle of the PurpleDragon.
When the wicked monster saw the Prince, it decided that here was asplendid opportunity to make mischief; so it said, politely:
"Good morning, King Zingle."
"I am not a king--I am only a prince," replied Zingle.
"What! not a king?" exclaimed the Dragon, as if surprised; "that is toobad."
"I can never be a king while my father lives," continued the Prince,"and it is impossible for him to die. So what can I do?"
"Since you ask my advice, I will tell you," answered the naughtyDragon. "Down near Rootbeer River, where the peanut trees grow, is avery deep hole in the ground. You must get the King to go and look intothis hole, and while he is leaning over the edge, push him in. Ofcourse, he will not die, for that, as you say, is impossible; but noone 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 itat once. Then the cow with the golden horns will be mine, and I shallbecome the Monarch of Mo."
The Prince turned to go back to the palace, and as soon as he was outof sight, the horrid Dragon laughed to think what a fool it had made ofthe boy.
When Zingle saw his father he called him aside and said:
"Your Majesty, I have discovered something very funny at the bottom ofthe 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 cowwith the golden horns.
Now when the King found himself at the bottom of the hole he at firstdid not know what to do; so he sat down and thought about it. Presentlya happy idea came into his head. He knew if only he was at the otherend of the hole, he would be at the top instead of the bottom, andcould make his escape. So the King took hold of the hole, and exertingall his strength, turned the hole upside down. Being now at the top hestepped upon the ground and walked back to the palace, where he caughtPrince Zingle milking the cow with the golden horns.
"Oh, ho!" he said, "you wish to be King, do you? Well, we'll see aboutthat!" Then he took the naughty Prince by the ear and led him into thepalace, where he locked him up in a room from which he could notescape.
The King now sat himself down in an easy chair and began to think onhow he could best punish the Prince, but after an hour of deep thoughthe was unable to decide on anything that seemed a sufficientchastisement 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 theValley, for he didn't like to mix with the gay life at the court. Hehad not always been wise, but at one time was a very stupid donkeyindeed, and he acquired his wisdom in this way.
One Friday afternoon, just as school was letting out, the stupid donkeystrayed into the school-house, and the teachers and scholars were allso anxious to get home that they never noticed the donkey, but lockedhim up in the school-house and went away without knowing he was there.
No one came into the building from Friday afternoon until Mondaymorning; so the donkey got very hungry, and certainly would havestarved had he not chanced to taste of a geography that was stickingout from one of the desks. The hungry donkey decided it was not sovery 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; butbecoming hungry again he awoke and commenced on the school library,which he completely devoured. This library comprised all the solid andsubstantial wisdom in the Valley of Mo, and when the janitor opened theschool-house door on Monday morning, all the books of learning in thewhole land had been eaten up by the stupid donkey.
You can readily understand that after he had digested all thisknowledge he became very wise, and thereafter the King and the peopleoften consulted the Wise Donkey when their own intelligence was atfault.
So now the monarch went to the donkey's house and told him of thePrince'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 thebooks I ate in the school-house was a trigonometry, and before I haddigested it I suffered very severe pains indeed."
"But I can not feed the Prince a trigonometry," returned the King. "Youate the last one yourself."
"True," answered the donkey; "but there are other things that causepain in the stomach. You know there is a certain island in RootbeerRiver that is made of fruit cake of a very rich quality. I advise youto put the Prince on this island and allow him nothing to eat exceptthe fruit cake. Presently he will have violent pains in his stomach andwill be punished as greatly as you could desire."
The King was well pleased with this plan, and having thanked the donkeyfor his wise advice hurried back to the palace.
Prince Zingle was now brought from his room and rowed in a boat to theFruit Cake Island in Rootbeer River, where he was left without any wayto escape. He knew how to swim, to be sure, but it was forbidden by lawto swim in the Rootbeer, as many people came to this river to drink.
"You shall stay here," said the King, sternly, "until you are sorry foryour wickedness; and you shall have nothing to eat but fruit cake."
The Prince laughed, because he thought the punishment was no punishmentat all. When the King had rowed away in the boat and Zingle was leftalone, he said to himself:
"Why, this is delightful! I shall have a jolly time here, and can eatall the cake I want, without any one scolding me for being greedy."
He broke off a large piece of the island where the raisins and citronwere thickest, and commenced to eat it. But after a time he becametired of eating nothing but fruit cake, and longed for something to gowith it. But the island did not contain a single thing except the cakeof which it was composed.
Presently Prince Zingle began to have a pain inside him. He paid noattention to it at first, thinking it would pass away; but instead itgrew more severe, so that he began to cry out; but no one heard him.
The pain steadily increased, and the Prince wept and rolled on theground and began to feel exceeding sorry he had been so wicked. Finallyhe seized the telephone, which was connected with the palace, andcalled up the King.
"Hullo!" said the King's voice, in reply; "what's wanted?"
"I have a terrible pain," said the Prince, with a groan, "and I'm verysorry indeed that I pushed your Majesty down the hole. If you'll onlytake me off this dreadful island I'll be the best prince in all theValley from this time forth!"
So the King sent the boat and had the Prince brought back to thepalace, where he forgave his naughty actions. Being a kind parent henext fed his suffering son a blossom from a medicine tree, whichquickly relieved his pain and led him to appreciate the pleasure ofrepentance.