The Little Lame Prince

people's idea of a king

er wrong-"The king can do no wrong" was a law laid down in olden times. Never cross, or tired, or sick, or suffering; perfectly handsome and well dressed, cal

r expected to see. And what did he s

h it to be generally known-it would be so very inconvenient. He can't see you, but perhap

ng, i

roned himself; had stepped into all the pleasant things that he, Prince Dolor, ought to have had, and shut him up in a desolate tower? W

ing inside the prince's heart, instead of on the top of his shoul

ks of chimneys as comfortably as if on the ground. She pecked at the tiles with her beak-truly she was a wonderful

. Make haste, for I mus

"Isn't it rude?-won't t

ion! Why, though the royal family are supposed to live shut up behind stone walls ever so thick, all the world knows that they live

Maje

e could have ever imagined. A stray sunbeam, coming through a crevice of the darkened windows, struck across the carpet, and it was the l

King?" asked t

all figure, something like wax-work, fast asleep-very fast asleep! There was a number of sparkling rings on the tiny yellow hands, that were curled a little, helplessly, like a baby's, outside the coverlet; the eyes were shut, the nose looke

ing?" whispere

eplied t

m, a poor little helpless child, to be shut up for life, just as if he had been dead. Many times th

pless he lay, with his eyes shut, and his idle han

ter with him?" a

said the Magpi

ry, the Prince felt almost sorry for him, except that he looked so peacefu

say, for all his grandeur. Perhaps he is

shut down the little door in the tiles, and Prince

f his traveling-cloak,

the world exceedingly when he was alive, and he ought to do it now he's dead-just once more. And since he can't hear me, I may as well say that, on the whole, his majesty is much better dead

will b

volut

have called it "fun" I don't know, b

in crowds, stopping at street corners to talk together. The murmur now and then rose into a shout, and the shout into a roar. When Prince Dolor,

king!" "Down with the crown, and the king too!" "Hurra

eled up to the traveling-cloak.

see one. But they have happened, and may happen again, in other countries besides Nomansland, when wicked kings have helped to make their people wicked too, or out of

rible evil that went on this night under Prince Dolor's very eyes-soldiers shooting down people by hundreds in the streets,

dren, and must by and by judge for yourselves the righ

pened so fast one after another tha

g his eyes; "only let me go home!" for even his lonely tower seemed h

for it was actually thus long that Prince Dolor had been hovering over the city, neither eating nor sleeping, w

!" cried the princ

r royal highness. You don't know me, but

y changed from bird's eyes to human eyes-the very eyes of his godmother, whom he had not seen for ever so long.

d when he awoke he found himself in his own room-alone and quiet-with the dawn just brea