to obtain a sight of the infant King, while the band played the
Royal March.

The little Alfonso grew and thrived, more or less like other babies,
until he was two years old, when he was taken in state to several of the
provinces to show him to his people. Then he first experienced the
uneasiness to which the head that wears a crown is said by Shakespeare
to be subject, for the incessant cheering of the people and the
ear-piercing strains of the martial music, wherever he was taken,
disturbed him so greatly at last that he would cry out in his baby
accents, "Stop, stop, no more!" Very soon, however, he began to grow
accustomed to the honors paid him, and when he was taken out walking by
the Queen, whose greatest pleasure it was, after he had learned to walk,
to go out walking unattended with her children, Alfonso holding her by
the hand while his two sisters walked in front, he would wave his hand
to every one who passed. Sometimes he would forget to return a bow or a
wave of a handkerchief, and then the Queen would say to him, "Bow,
Alfonso."

At this time the little King had to take care of him and to attend upon
him a Spanish nurse and an English nurse and an Austrian and a Spanish
lady, besides his own special cook. The Spanish nurse of the royal
children is always brought from one particular part of Spain, the valley
of Paz, in the province of Santander, where one of the court physicians
goes to select the healthiest and most robust among the various
candidates for the position. As the young King is of a delicate
constitution, thought to have been inherited from his father, the
greatest care has been lavished upon him ever since his birth, the Queen
herself exercising a watchful supervision over every detail of his daily
life.

About four years ago Alfonso had a very serious illness, which everybody
feared would terminate fatally, and which was probably due to a cause
that has made many another little boy ill. Being in the apartments of
his aunt, the Infanta Isabel, the elder sister of the Princess Eulalia,
whose visit to us at the time of the opening of the exposition at
Chicago made so pleasant an impression upon everybody, the Infanta gave
the little boy a box of bonbons of a particularly delicious kind, which,
seeing that he was observed by no one, he went on eating until he had
finished the box. During his illness he would often inquire after a
little lame girl to whom he used to give money in his drives to