d old Adelbert, with a new bitterness, replied that the sons of kings
needed much prayer. Sometimes they were hard and did cruel things.

"And then the Crown Prince will be a king," Bobby reflected. "If I were
a king, I'd make people stand around. And I'd have an automobile and run
it myself. But has the Crown Prince only a grandfather, and no father?"

"He died--the boy's father. He was murdered, and the Princess his mother
also."

Bobby's eyes opened wide. "Who did it?"

"Terrorists," said old Adelbert. And would not be persuaded to say more.

That night at dinner Bobby Thorpe delivered himself of quite a speech.
He sat at the table, and now and then, when the sour-faced governess
looked at her plate, he slipped a bit of food to his dog, which waited
beside him.

"There's a very nice old man upstairs," he said. "He has a fine sword,
and ring-doves, and a wooden leg. And he used to rent opera-glasses to
the Crown Prince, only he turned them around. I'm going to try that with
yours, mother. We had sausage together, and he has lost his position,
and he's never been on the Scenic Railway, father. I'd like some tickets
for him. He would like riding, I'm sure, because walking must be pretty
hard. And what I want to know is this: Why can't you give him a job,
father?"

Bobby being usually taciturn at the table, and entirely occupied with
food, the family stared at him.

"What sort of a job, son? A man with one leg!"

"He doesn't need legs to chop tickets with."

The governess listened. She did not like Americans. Barbarians they
were, and these were of the middle class, being in trade. For a scenic
railway is trade, naturally. Except that they paid a fat salary, with
an extra month at Christmas, she would not be there. She and Pepy, the
maid, had many disputes about this. But Pepy was a Dalmatian, and did
not matter.

"He means the old soldier upstairs," said Bobby's mother softly. She was
a gentle person. Her eyes were wide and childlike, and it was a sort of
religion of the family to keep them full of happiness.

This also the governess could not understand.

"So the old soldier is out of work," mused the head of the family. Head,
thought the governess! When they wound him about their fingers! She
liked men of sterner stuff. In her mountain country the men did as
they wished, and sometimes beat their wives by way of showing their
authority. Under no circumstances, she felt, would this young man ever
beat hi