natured and quarrelsome men at all times,
and their tempers had not improved since their conquest by the Prince
of Pingaree. Moreover, they were eating up Queen Cor's provisions and
crowding the houses of her own people, who grumbled and complained
until their Queen was heartily tired.

"Shame on you!" she said to her husband, King Gos, "to be driven out of
your city by a boy, a roly-poly King and a billy goat! Why do you not
go back and fight them?"

"No human can fight against the powers of magic," returned the King in
a surly voice. "That boy is either a fairy or under the protection of
fairies. We escaped with our lives only because we were quick to run
away; but, should we return to Regos, the same terrible power that
burst open the city gates would crush us all to atoms."

"Bah! you are a coward," cried the Queen, tauntingly.

"I am not a coward," said the big King. "I have killed in battle scores
of my enemies; by the might of my sword and my good right arm I have
conquered many nations; all my life people have feared me. But no one
would dare face the tremendous power of the Prince of Pingaree, boy
though he is. It would not be courage, it would be folly, to attempt
it."

"Then meet his power with cunning," suggested the Queen. "Take my
advice, and steal over to Regos at night, when it is dark, and capture
or destroy the boy while he sleeps."

"No weapon can touch his body," was the answer. "He bears a charmed
life and cannot be injured."

"Does the fat King possess magic powers, or the goat?" inquired Cor.

"I think not," said Gos. "We could not injure them, indeed, any more
than we could the boy, but they did not seem to have any unusual
strength, although the goat's head is harder than a battering-ram."

"Well," mused the Queen, "there is surely some way to conquer that
slight boy. If you are afraid to undertake the job, I shall go myself.
By some stratagem I shall manage to make him my prisoner. He will not
dare to defy a Queen, and no magic can stand against a woman's cunning."

"Go ahead, if you like," replied the King, with an evil grin, "and if
you are hung up by the thumbs or cast into a dungeon, it will serve you
right for thinking you can succeed where a skilled warrior dares not
make the attempt."

"I'm not afraid," answered the Queen. "It is only soldiers and bullies
who are cowards."

In spite of this assertion, Queen Cor was not so brave as she was
cunning. For several days she tho