en of
this orchard take any interest or defend you, as you were not the
witness of the caresses bestowed upon him by his young lady. If you look
at me, you will see that a wound, received in the wars which I waged
long since, extinguished my left eye. You will also see that my tail is
not, to say the least, either so glossy or so ample as of yore, and my
neck and temples are somewhat bare, partly because in those wars I
received divers swashing blows upon my head, and partly because of my
increasing age.'

"The prince looked at him, and remarked that he certainly was a draggled
old scarecrow. Not the least annoyed by this unfilial expression, the
old king proceeded to show his heir how, in order for him, first, to
retain the kingdom, and secondly, to keep the interest of the old
gentleman owner of the orchard, it was necessary for him to present the
same appearance as Kapchack himself did. 'In short,' said he, 'when I
die you must be ready to take my place, and to look exactly like me.'
The prince began to see the point, and even to admire the cunning of his
father, but still he could not forgive the loss of his eye.

"'Ah!' said Kapchack I., 'you see I was obliged to take you upon the
hop, otherwise it would never have been accomplished; no persuasion
could have induced you to submit to such a deprivation, and, now I am
about it, let me advise you, indeed, strictly enjoin upon you, when it
becomes your turn, and you, too, are old and failing, to do the same as
I did. Do not tell your son and heir what you are going to do, or depend
upon it he will slip aside and avoid you; but do it first. And now,
since you have already so far the same bleared aspect as myself, you
will feel no difficulty in submitting to certain curtailments behind,
and to the depilation of your head and neck.'

"Well, the result was, that the prince, full of ambition, and
determined to rule at any price, in the end submitted to these
disfigurations; the only thing he groaned over was the fear that none of
the young lady magpies would now have anything to say to him.

"'My dear and most dutiful son,' said the old king, greatly pleased at
the changed attitude of his heir, 'I assure you that you will not
experience any loss of attention upon that score. It is in early youth
indeed a very prevalent mistake for gaudy young fellows (as you appeared
the other day) to imagine that it is the gloss of their feathers, the
brilliance of their eyes, and the