man.

"My friend, to please me. . . ."

"I don't want to please you."

Prince Boscenos was as a rule good-tempered, but he was easily angered
and a man of great strength.

"Fellow, come down or I will go up to you," cried he, in a terrible
voice.

As the workman, astride on his coping, showed no sign of budging, the
prince climbed quickly up the staircase of the tower and attacked the
singer. He gave him a blow that broke his jaw-bone and sent him rolling
into a water-spout. At that moment seven or eight carpenters, who were
working on the rafters, heard their companion's cry and looked through
the window. Seeing the prince on the coping they climbed along a ladder
that was leaning on the slates and reached him just as he was slipping
into the tower. They sent him, head foremost, down the one hundred and
thirty-seven steps of the spiral staircase.

IV. VISCOUNTESS OLIVE

The Penguins had the finest army in the world. So had the Porpoises. And
it was the same with the other nations of Europe. The smallest amount of
thought will prevent any surprise at this. For all armies are the finest
in the world. The second finest army, if one could exist, would be in
a notoriously inferior position; it would be certain to be beaten. It
ought to be disbanded at once. Therefore, all armies are the finest in
the world. In France the illustrious Colonel Marchand understood
this when, before the passage of the Yalou, being questioned by some
journalists about the Russo-Japanese war, he did not hesitate to
describe the Russian army as the finest in the world, and also the
Japanese. And it should be noticed that even after suffering the most
terrible reverses an army does not fall from its position of being
the finest in the world. For if nations ascribe their victories to the
ability of their generals and the courage of their soldiers, they always
attribute their defeats to an inexplicable fatality. On the other hand,
navies are classed according to the number of their ships. There is a
first, a second, a third, and so on. So that there exists no doubt as to
the result of naval wars.

The Penguins had the finest army and the second navy in the world.
This navy was commanded by the famous Chatillon, who bore the title
of Emiralbahr, and by abbreviation Emiral. It is the same word which,
unfortunately in a corrupt form, is used to-day among several European
nations to designate the highest grade in the naval service. But as