THE LOST KING

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1064, 30 August 1930, Page 29

THE LOST KING

The people of Mussendonia were getting ever so cross because there were so many laws against doing things that there wasn’t anything left for them to do, And then if they did nothing there was a law against that, too. No wonder they were annoyed. “We shall have to do something about things,” said the Prime Minister to the King, “or else the population will rise in revolt.” “Dear, dear,” said the King. '1 had no idea it was like that. You had better tell the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chamberlain to come with you to the Council Chamber tomorrow. We can't have people rising here.”

That afternoon the King's nephew was playing with his new air-gun in the palace grounds and he thought he would see if he could hit a drain pipe on the wall and hear it go clang. So he loaded his gun and took aim. “Bang!” went the King’s nephew’s air-gun, but the drain pipe didn’t go clang at all. No. The window of the Council Chamber went crash instead and therei was a nasty hole in the glass. “00-er,” said the King s nephew. “Now I shall catch it." But then he suddenly thought of something. He hurried to the tool shed and got a ladder. He hurried up the ladder to the broken window and he carefully took all the broker, glass out of the window and buried it by the rhubarb. And. of course, when he had done that the window didn’t look as if it was broken at all. because no-glass-at-all-in-a window looks so much like glass-ih-a-window that you’d never notice there wasn’t any glass unless -you expected there wasn’t. ~ And. of course, the King didn t expect there wasn’t any glass in the window. He just thought how nice and clean it was to look through when lie came into the Council Room with the three Ministers, to see what could be done tq, stop the people rising in C “Look up the book on ‘Kingdoms and How to Rule Them.’ ” he said, "and find out what it says under laws and under revolt and under people. ana under any other things you can think Uf “Yes. your Majesty,” said the three chancellors, and they opened the book and buried their three noses in its

pages. _. l. “Hurry uni? said the king. I want to go and play croquet.” and he leaned against thr- window. But the window ‘he leaned against was the (mo that wasn‘t there. but only lookedl as if. it \‘i'us. It was the brokenl window. So, of course. the Kin: fell. Clean thrmugh it. and if it hadn't heen' for a. nice big pile of grass cuttings! that the gardener had emptied ou\oft the lawn—mower just under the wind-ow. , his )lajesty might have hurt: him-l self. But he fell on the heap of grass : cuttings and didn‘t hurt himself. sol that part was all right. “My goodnessi" he exclaimed, whenl he had time to think where he \\‘as.l “\Vhatever has happened? Dean] dear!" . _ ‘ “Your lMajesty,” said a V'Olce in his, ear. “it is indeed fortunate I was} near." It was the Court Magician. 1 _“’VVhat do you meani’” asked the King. "Your Majesty." said the Blagician,‘ “a. witch was spiriting you away but. fortunately. I saw her and by my! greater magic power I was able tol defeat hen spell and cause her to, drop your )lajesty on this hem) of grass cuttings" “oh," said the King. thinking how lucky it was that he had a (four: Magician and how lucky it was that he. was so handy and powerful. Of course. thopourt Magician simply wasn't telling the truth. as you known. lie had been sitting: in 21 hollow tree! Studying up SOYH!‘ nexv magic when] the King’s nephew sn‘iushcd thel window \\'ith his air-gun. And as ho had given him the air—gun he was! rather smu‘ed about iI. especially when. he saw the King full out of the window that wasn‘t there any more. ’So he run up and told the King :1 iii) about the witch. It was very wrong. but you see Kings do got so (‘ross about broken windows and things. especially, if they [all out of them. 1 “\Vell. thank you very much." saidl the King. giving the Magician :1 bndl Sixpence that he hadn't been able to] get any of the shops to take. “Now 111 be getting back." I But the Court. Magician couldn‘t let him do that in case he found out aboutl the window. so he said:—— i “No. your Majesty, that would be un- . wise. I think. If I may suggest it. I; think your Majesty should hide some~i where and let. everyone think youl really have been magicked away." “\Vliy." asked the King, brushin: the grass off his robes. » "Because if there isn‘t a king to re—.volt against. the people! won’t be able to revolt." said the Magician. “Of course not." said the King. brightening up, “And there'll be an awful fuss and everyone will be so busy trying to find you that they Won’t even have, time to think about rising in revolt,“ he went on. “Splendid!” cried the King. “Where can I hide? Not up the chimney because of the‘soot and not down a. drain because of the smell.” “I will hide your Liajesty in a sec—ret room in my magic cave,” said the wizard. “and when everyone is all worried because you have vanished iand wishing you back again. I will produce you in a. way that will seem like magic and they will be so gladi to see your Majesty that there will be great rejoicing." “Hurry!" cried the King, and he gave the magician a good Sixpence and off they went to the magic cave. which was in a. far corner of the palace grounds, behind the duck pond. Up in the Council Chamber the. three Ministers still had their noses in the book about ruling kingdoms. Presently the Prime Minister took his nose out of the book to say he couldn't find anything about revolutions and risings that seemed any good. “Your Majesty—” he began. E Then he looked up and gave a yell iof, dismay. For the King had en—itire'ly disappeared. '___________________._.._

SPRING - ISpring is venturing forth today; |This is the season of I'4lan at play. Daffodils. violets and freesias all {Flourishing there beside the wall. tThe birds are .an mating and nesting ! us well. !\Vhere they come from no one can ‘ tell Spring is venturing forth today. Buds and blossoms bedecking her way. ' a—Margerr Grant, aged 13.

A Tale of a Window That Wasn’t There

“Heavens!” cried the Ministers, rushing about, looking under the table and behind the pictures. “His Majesty has vanished.” “Good Gracious, where can his Majesty be?” and —“Oh. dear, oh dear, the King has gone nobody knows where!”

For, of course, none of the Ministers had seen the King fall out of the window without any glass, and nobody knew there wasn’t any glass in the window except the King, who at that moment was sitting on the grass cuttings talking to the Court Magician; the King’s nephew, who had broken the glass, so he wasn’t going to say

anything about it; and the Royal Win dow’ Cleaner, and he didn’t breathe i word, because the more windows then were without glass in them the les: work there was “for him and the mor he liked it.

So there was most frightful confusion and anxiety in the kingdom about the mysterious disappearance of the King. Everybody hunted everywhere except where the King really was, and they didn't hunt there because nobody knew’ about the secret room in the Magician’s cave and wouldn’t have dared to go there if they had. Rewards were offered for the return of the King. Letectives went about in batches, all disguised differently, to see who had stolen the King, and kept on arresting each other by mistake. The Army dug up all the land to see if the King had been buried, but he hadn't. The Navy went out in boats and fished with nets to see if the King was in the sea, but he wasn’t. And altogether everyone was so worried about the disappeared King and so busy trying to find him that they had no time to think about the revolution at all.

“Oh dear, oh dear.” moaned the Ministers, who were getting all mixed up, trying to rule the kingdom by themselves. “We do wish we had the King back.” “Alas-a-lack. a-dearie. dearie, oh!” wailed all the populace. “This is aw’ful. If we don't get our King back some other King will come along and steal the throne, and then we shall have a lot more laws and it will be worse than ever. Oh, if only we had the King back we wouldn’t revolt at all. really we wouldn’t.” Then Court Magician, who had heard all this, stood up in the Market Place and shouted:

“Oh, people, if you promise not to revolt, I will use my magic power to bring baev the King.”

“Yes, yes. we promise," cried everyone. ‘Bring us back our King and we won’t revolt at all, ever."

“Very well,” cried the Magician. “Let everyone assemble in the courtyard of the palace tomorrow, at noon. " And he went off to his cave to make preparations, while the people and the Ministers rushed about more frantically than ever and could hardly wait till tomorrow to see the King brought back; only they had to. By noon the next day the palace courtyard was packed so full with people that everybody was standing on someone else’s feet.

The palace clock struck twelve. The crowd stopped chattering and held their breaths. Twenty heralds in purple and gold sounded a fanfare on jewel-studded trumpets. Then down the steps came the Court Magician, and the crowd let out their held breaths in a cheer that made the welkin ring like an alarm clock.

When the cheers had died down, the Court Magician rolled up his sleeves, borrowed a hat and a rabbit from it. Then he borrowed a watch, smashed it and produced it whole from a loaf of bread. Then he borrowed a handkerchief and turned it into a bowl of water with goldfish in it. And all the time he was doing these conjuring tricks, the populace was getting more and more anxious to see him bring the King back, which was just what he wanted them to do.

“Now!” cried the Magician. “I will magic back the King." He clapped his hands. Everyone cheered again, and stewards marched out carrying a platform on which was the empty throne with the King clinging to the back of it where nobody could see him.

The Magician took a large tablecloth from one of the stewards and held it in front of the throne while the King climbed round and sat down.

“Presto. prestissimo! Return. ol: King!” cried the Magician.

Then with a grand flourish, he flung away the cloth and there was the King, bowing and smiling to the crowd.

“Hurray! The King! Wonderful: Amazing! Vive le King, or whatever the word is. Welcome to his Majesty! Hurray!” yelled the crowd.

They cheered and they shouted. They sang and they yelled. Bands played, whistles blew, rockets were sent up, guns were let off, flags were waved.

and everyone threw confetti and flowers and things about. Oh. they were glad to have the King back, and no mistake.

“You did very well,” said the King to the Court Magician afterwards. You shall have double pocket money and two teas every day for the rest of vour life.” # Of course, you may think it wrong of the Court Magician to have deceived the people like that, but he prevented a revolution, so after all he deserved his reward.