The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1891-03-28
A KINGS ouEER CRADLE.
Tho Shell OF n Tortoise Was the Bed
Henry of Navarro.


Tho Shell of Tortoise Was the Bed Of
Henry of Navarro.
The cradle that queen should choose
for her princely little baby must be a
very grand affair, don't you think SOP
Perhaps made of choice or costly woods
or even of precious metal In either
case it must, you think, be most beauti-
fully shaped and perhaps carved with
the figures of sweet little cherubs,
watching over the favored mortal baby
as he sleeps softly amid his clouds Of
fine linen and delicate lace.
This may all be. What tmade me think
of it was something that heard trav-
eler tell about within few days.
This traveller had lately come from
France. While in that country he had
visited the town of Pau, among the
Pyrenees mountains. In this town,
high up, looking over the valleys, stands
an old, old castle, dark and gray and
gloomy. 1t was built in the olden days
when there was much fighting, and
mobiles and princes had to live in castles,
with walls made so thick and strong to
keep out their enemies that the blessed
sunlight was kept out too, and the big
rooms and halls were dark and dismal
enough. Here in this castle of Pau, in
the year of 1868, said the traveller, lived
the old king of Navarro, and here, in
this same year, was born his grandson
Henry, prince of Navarro, afterward
known the world over as Henry the
Great, King of France and Navarro.
He was called great not only because
he knew how to head the armies of his
kingdom, fighting his enemies, but be-
cause he loved his people, and tried to
make them happy and prosperous as
we'll as glorious.
So his people loved him, and after his
death they cherished everything that
had belonged to him with the greatest
care. Here, in his castle of Pau, is still
treasured the cradle in which the royal
baby was rocked to rest.
1t is a cradle made all of tortoise-shell.
Shouldn't you think it would break
very easily? 1t would if it were thin
and polished tortoise-shell, like girls
dainty bracelet, which is almost as brit
tie as glass; but there is little danger of
this royal cradle meeting any such fate
no more danger than If the shell were
still on the back of the turtle, its first
ownerl The shell is not polished or al.
tered in any way. 1t was taken from
the back of the big sea-turtle (who had
carried it so long, and thought himselt
so safe in his stout shell-house) and was
cleaned and turned over on it's back.
Then only little blanket was laid il
it, for the young Prince of Navarro was
not brought up delicately, and in his
very cradle was taught to lie wrapped
in rough blanket, instead of on soft
cushions, amid luxurious linen and lace
The traveller did not tell the frient
with whom he was talking whether ol
not the turtle-shell cradle was mounted
on rockers. If not, how could the cradle
have been rocked without giving the
. poor little baby most terrible jouncing'
: A little boy, who was walking will
the traveller and his friend, said that HI
didn't think the little Prince Henry haC
half so comfortable a time of it as hi
own little baby brother at home; and
! shouldn't wonder if that were true
But, perhaps, after all, it isn't good fo
) babies to be quite so comfortable.
, may be that more babios would grow
) up to be strong and hardy men ant
women if they were not treated quite S,
, tenderly at the first. t.-Jack-in-the-P Pull
pit, in st. Nicholas.