Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-10-20

kings humble companion having
gone off for a few minutes on an err
rand of his comrade and monarch.
reappeared wearing a leafy crown
over his head, which he had impro-
vised out of a somewhat gnarled
bough. What's that around your
hat?' asked the king. That's my
crown, replied the boy commoner.
1t nearly tore the ribbon around my
hat as | pinned it. There are plenty
more up there. where they are prun-
ing the trees. Would you like me to
get you one?'
The Little Kings tongue is
quite as sharp as his eyesight; but he
is made to be very careful how he
employs it whenever grown up peo-
pie are present. Possibly a con-
siderable part. of what he says is a
mere modification of what he hears
from people much older than himself.
Some of the caustic epithets he ap-
plies to certain of the eminent poll
ticians of the cortes are of this cate
CORY; but they are daily becoming
less and less frequent. One day his
playmate, instead of doing some
thing which the king desired, en-
deayored to show that it was either
| difficult or wholly impossible, and in
order to prove it he spoke on and
on till the royal boy lost patience,
and, stamping his foot, said, Shut up,
X, calling him by the name of
| celebrated deputy, famous for his
! long and eloquent discourses), or
else you may leave me and the gar
den and take you. self off to parlia-
ment.'
"One day, during his history les
son, the king asked his professor to
tell him how Spain came to lose
Chile, Mexico and the other Spanish
American colonies. The story was
narrated so thrillingly and artistic
ally that the royal boy listened SPELL
bound, and continued, after it had
ended, to sit absorbed in meditation.
At last, a thought having struck him,
he looked up to his professor and in
CURED, What must l do in order to
get back those countries for Spain?'
1.-The first and most important
thing of ALL replied the cautious and
diplomatic pedagogue, is that your
majesty notwithstanding up to
be man. When you are man
Him. muttered the lad, disenchanted,
when I'm a man it is not a history
professors advice that 1 shall be ask
ing. l shall have prime minister
to tell me then
THE restraint of court life would
be source of exquisite suffering to
a vivacious youth like Alfonso XIII,
were he obliged to submit to it.
Fortunately the existence he leads
is that of a boy in an aristocratic pri-
vate family, with some extra restric-
tiOns thrown in. All his hours, or
nearly all, are filled up with some oc-
cupatiOn Or other, according to a pro-
gram which is observed with German
minuteness, and this is CALLING to the
independent Spanish spirit of the lad.
He can not, or will not, under
stand why he must do this thing
which he hates, or refrain from that
which his heart yearns for, simply
because this is absolutely necessary
for a king that is unbecoming a
monarch the other thing is harm
less in itself but for the king of
: Spain at the present moment it is i'm
possible. Why impossible?' he has
often asked and nearly always the
: reply ELECTED was, You will under
stand all this better when you are
older Why does young So-and-so
, do it, them oh, he is only the son
Of a deputy Well, l only wish
were a deputys son, tool"