Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1893-10-24
SIMPLICITY.

Once upon time on an island, which
the sea has long since engulfed, there
lived king and queen who had one
son The king was great king; his
drinking cup was the very largest in all
the realm; his sword the heaviest; he
fought and he drank royalty.
The qurtI s,..s beautiful queen;
she had SO many wonderful cosmetics,
and they wrought SO mysterious and
wonderful charm that she looked not
day older than forty.
The son was fool. IA fool of the
most pronounced type" said the bril-
liant lights of the kingdom. When he
had reached the age of sixteen the king
his father, took him to the wars. These
wars were carried on in order to exter-
inmate certain neighboring nation
that dared to possess too much territory
Here it was that Simplicity showed
himself Ounce. He saved twenty four
women and thirty-six children from
slaughter, and every stroke of the sword
which he was himself forced to give
caused him to weep bitterly, while the
blood and encountered with the dead,
filled his heart with such deep pity that
for three days he could not eat
So you must see that he was Ounce,
my dear
When he was seventeen he was obliged
to assist at great festival given by the
king to all the magnates of his kingdom
Here again he committed many blum
ders. He contented himself easily; he
ate sparsely of the great banquet spread
before him, and he swore-not at all!
His glass would have remained always
full before him had not the king him
self, to save the dignity o. the family,
emptied it slyly from time to time.
AT eighteen, as he began to grow a
beard, he was noticed by one of the
queens court ladies.
Court ladies are dreadful creatures,
my dear
This particular court lady wished for
nothing less than to be kissed by the
prince! The poor boy did not dream of
such thing; he trembled when she
spoke to him, and hid himself the mo-
ment he saw the edge of her skirts in the
gardens. The king, who was good
father, saw what was passing and
laughed III his sleeve. But as the lady
still pursued the prince, and the kiss was
still withheld he blushed for such son
and himself gave the kiss asked for, al
ways, to be sure, for the dignity and
honor OF his family and his race. "Oh,
the little fool!" said the king, who was
man of spirit!
1t was at the age of twenty that Sim
phclty became completely idiotic. He
met forest and fell in love! In those
olden times people did not try to beauti-
~ the trees by pruning and cruel Incl
slons The branches grew as they listed;
uod alone had them in charge, and
moderated the roots and managed the
sapllngs, Simplicity's forest was an i'm
mense nest of verdure, interspersed here
and there by majestic avenues. The
moss drunk with the dew, flourished
wahtonly; the eglantines spread their
pHaht arms, sought each other and
played mad pranks around the mighty
trunks of the trees. The great trees
themselves, standing calm and serene,
twisted their roots in the shade and
mounted unanimously upward to kiss
the rays of summer. The green grass
nourlshed, while in their hurry to bios
som the daisy and the scorpion grass.
growing confused at times, chung to-
se1her on the broken trunks of fallen
trees And all these branches, all these
grasses, all these flowers, sang: all min
gied and pressed closely together to
gossip more at ease, to whisper low to-
sether OF the loves of the corolla. A
breath OF life fioated low down in the
'nauowed coppice, giving voice to each
sprig of moss.
me forest held high carnival. The
,aoyoirds, the beetles, the dragonfiies,
'iie outtertiies-all the beautiful lovers
vi the towering hedges-had gathered
a' the four quarters of the forest.
ihere they established their little re-
pubic; the footpaths were their guards;
.he streams, their streams; the forest,
.neir forest. They lived luxuriantly at
'ne ioot OF the trees. on low branches, in
tue dried leaves; lived there as though
at nome, quietly and by right of con-
quest They had, like good citizens
abandoned the higher branches to the
robins and the nightingales. The forest,
.hat mad hitherto sung in all its branches,
III al Its leaves and flowers, sang now
with the insects and with the birds.
IN short time Simplicity became an
oiu friend of the forest. They chatted
80 happily together that it robbed him
Vi the last vestige of sense When he
.eit the forest to shut himself again
w,thn four walls, whether seated at his
aoie or lying in his bed, he was always
dreaming.