St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1890-04-19

town, and garlsnds were stretched from
house to house across the streets, and the
wedding was celebrated with such mag
ni6cence that fourteen days afterward
the people were still talking of nothing
else.
For one whole year the King and Queen
lived In 10y and pleasure. The King had
completely forgotten the gingernuts and
the Queen the jewsharp.
One morning, however, the King got up
early, putting the wrong foot first out of
/ bed and everything went wrong. 1t rain I'D
all day the imperial globe, with the little
cross on top, fell down, and the little cross
broke off and then when the court painter
came and brought the new maps of the
kingdom, the King saw that the land was
painted red instead of blue as he had or
dered and finally, the Queen had head
ache. And so it happened that the married
couple, for the first time, fell out Why,
they did not know themselves the next
day, or if they did know, they would not
tell. The King was growlish, and the
| Queen was snappish, and she would always
have the last word. After they had SQUAD
bled here and there for some time, the
Queen, struggling her shoulders contempt
uously, said:
81 should think by this time you would
be quiet and stop blaming everything that
comes under your eye. You yourself, you
cannot even play the jewsharp."
| Hardly had the words escaped her be-
fore the King fell in, venomously, with:
"And you cannot even bake ginger
nuts p
For the first time the Queen had no an
swer she became silent. They separated
without exchanging another word, each
one going into a different chamber.
The Queen sat herself down in the corner
of the sofa and wept, saying to herself :
"What silly woman You are Where in
the world was your common sense? 4on
could not possibly have acted more stu
pidlyp
Tie King, on the contrary, walked up
and down his chamber, rubbing his bands,
saying: cit is real piece of good luck
that my wife does not know how to bake
had to answer her otherwise, when she
flung it at me that could not play the
jewsharp?"
After he had repeated this three or four
times he became happier and happier.
He began to whistle his favorite tunes he
stood before the portrait of his wife that
hung in bis chamber, and got up on
chair to wipe off with his pocket handker
chief cobweb that was dangling right
over the Queens nose, At length he said
'She certainly did get into temper, the
good little wife. Suppose 60 and see
what she is doing, anyway
With that he went out of the door into
the long hall, on which sill the rooms
opened. But as everything had gone
wrong that day, the valet had of course,
forgotten to light the lamps, although it
was already 8 o'clock at night and pitch
dark. The King stretched out his hands
before him to keep from knocking against
anything, and tapped cautiously along the
wall as he walked. Suddenly he felt
something soft.
"Who's thsre?" he asked.
sit is l." answered the Queen.
"What are you looking for, sweetheart"
81 wanted to get your pardon, AMI
swered the Queen, "for having vexeG
you so
Indeed, you need not do that at all r,
said the King; and he caught her around
the neck II am more in fault than your
and, have forgotten it all long ago. Butt
do you know, let US forbid two words i,s
our kingdom, on pain of death-sjews>
harp and"
'Gingernuts, the Queen joined in,
laughing. and secretely wiping away q
pair of tears from her eyes-and that is
the end of the story.-He5reu Journal