rse Nuts' like?"

"Something like cocoanuts, to look at," explained the Ugly One. "All
you have to do is to pick one of them and then sit down and eat your
dinner. You first unscrew the top part and find a cupfull of good soup.
After you've eaten that, you unscrew the middle part and find a hollow
filled with meat and potatoes, vegetables and a fine salad. Eat that,
and unscrew the next section, and you come to the dessert in the bottom
of the nut. That is, pie and cake, cheese and crackers, and nuts and
raisins. The Three-Course Nuts are not all exactly alike in flavor or
in contents, but they are all good and in each one may be found a
complete three-course dinner."

"But how about breakfasts?" inquired Betsy.

"Why, there are Breakfast Trees for that, which grow over there at the
right. They bear nuts, like the others, only the nuts contain coffee or
chocolate, instead of soup; oatmeal instead of meat-and-potatoes, and
fruits instead of dessert. Sad as has been my life in this wonderful
prison, I must admit that no one could live more luxuriously in the
best hotel in the world than I have lived here; but I will be glad to
get into the open air again and see the good old sun and the silvery
moon and the soft green grass and the flowers that are kissed by the
morning dew. Ah, how much more lovely are those blessed things than the
glitter of gems or the cold gleam of gold!"

"Of course," said Betsy. "I once knew a little boy who wanted to catch
the measles, because all the little boys in his neighborhood but him
had 'em, and he was really unhappy 'cause he couldn't catch 'em, try as
he would. So I'm pretty certain that the things we want, and can't
have, are not good for us. Isn't that true, Shaggy?"

"Not always, my dear," he gravely replied. "If we didn't want anything,
we would never get anything, good or bad. I think our longings are
natural, and if we act as nature prompts us we can't go far wrong."

"For my part," said Queen Ann, "I think the world would be a dreary
place without the gold and jewels."

"All things are good in their way," said Shaggy; "but we may have too
much of any good thing. And I have noticed that the value of anything
depends upon how scarce it is, and how difficult it is to obtain."

"Pardon me for interrupting you," said King Kaliko, coming to their
side, "but now that we have rescued Shaggy's brother I would like to
return to my royal cavern. Being the King of the Nomes, it is my d