n they had gone and the King was alone with Dorothy he came down
from his throne, tossed his crown into a corner and kicked his ermine
robe under the table.

"Sit down," he said, "and try to be happy. It's useless for me to try,
because I'm always wretched and miserable. But I'm hungry, and I hope
you are."

"I am," said Dorothy. "I've only eaten a wheelbarrow and a piano
to-day--oh, yes! and a slice of bread and butter that used to be a
door-mat."

"That sounds like a square meal," remarked the King, seating himself
opposite her; "but perhaps it wasn't a square piano. Eh?"

Dorothy laughed.

"You don't seem so very unhappy now," she said.

"But I am," protested the King, fresh tears gathering in his eyes.
"Even my jokes are miserable. I'm wretched, woeful, afflicted,
distressed and dismal as an individual can be. Are you not sorry for
me?"

"No," answered Dorothy, honestly, "I can't say I am. Seems to me that
for a rabbit you're right in clover. This is the prettiest little city
I ever saw."

"Oh, the city is good enough," he admitted. "Glinda, the Good
Sorceress, made it for us because she was fond of rabbits. I don't
mind the City so much, although I wouldn't live here if I had my
choice. It is being King that has absolutely ruined my happiness."

"Why wouldn't you live here by choice?" she asked.

"Because it is all unnatural, my dear. Rabbits are out of place in
such luxury. When I was young I lived in a burrow in the forest. I
was surrounded by enemies and often had to run for my life. It was
hard getting enough to eat, at times, and when I found a bunch of
clover I had to listen and look for danger while I ate it. Wolves
prowled around the hole in which I lived and sometimes I didn't dare
stir out for days at a time. Oh, how happy and contented I was then!
I was a real rabbit, as nature made me--wild and free!--and I even
enjoyed listening to the startled throbbing of my own heart!"

"I've often thought," said Dorothy, who was busily eating, "that it
would be fun to be a rabbit."

"It IS fun--when you're the genuine article," agreed his Majesty. "But
look at me now! I live in a marble palace instead of a hole in the
ground. I have all I want to eat, without the joy of hunting for it.
Every day I must dress in fine clothes and wear that horrible crown
till it makes my head ache. Rabbits come to me with all sorts of
troubles, when my own troubles are the only ones I care about.