Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-09

forced marches arrived at the swamp about
teatime. The dragon was delighted. 1t
had been left so much to itself that 1t was
quite down in the mouth BY nightfall half
the brave and gallant army of Dummeeu-
tia were similarly situated and the other
six had returned to PutZenheim to resign
their commissions. Then the king took
counsel of his advisers and issued the fol-
lowing proclamation:
WANTED.
A ST. GEORGE TO STAY THE
DRAGON.
REWARD
AS usual: DAUGHTERS HAND AND
HALF KINGDOM.
FERDINAND r.
The neighboring kingdoms were thrown
into great excitement by this proclamation
which was spread far and wide. Princes by
the score came thronging into the royal city
of PutZenheim and were entertained night
after night with costly banquets by the
king. But by the end of the month the
palace had settled down again to its usual
state of weak teas and board wages. Some
of the princes had seen the dragon, others
had seen the princess. In either case the
result was the same. Not one of them had
got any further than. a nodding acquaint-
ance with the redoubtable beast. They had
lost interest in its habits after that and
had either run away or tried to. The princes
had failed.
didn't want royal banquets, and were not
SO expensive to entertain in other ways.
One said he was magician and said he
could exercise the dragon. No one knew
quite what he meant, but it was generally
agreed afterward that the dragon had done
most of the exercising. Another said he
could charm it out of the kingdom by his
flute playing. He might have succeeded with
ticing beforehand the inhabitants saved
him the trouble Of trying and deprived the
brute Of a meal at the same time.
The enterprising vender of patent rat
Ill IL
claim to the princess. having a wife on
hand already, but said he could make use
of the other part of the reward. He was
willing to supply the goods required gratis
as an advertisement. He sent one of his
travellers to start operations with hun
dred tins. The traveller saturated a sheep
and left it near the dragons home in the
swamp. The dragon had been trihe in
disposed for few days. but managed to
make away with the sheep. The poison
seemed to revive it. much to the chagrin
of the traveller, and 1t became more Of q
nuisance than before. The traveller wired
to headquarters for thousand tins, and
dressed an OK with the condiment. The
dragon swallowed the spiced beef with avid
ity, and found out who was responsible for
the treat, the traveller having waited to see
the effect of the dose. An advertisement was
put In the papers by the firm for pushing
agent to take the travellers place, and the
cost Of eleven hundred tins, with a small
pension for the widow, was written off the
books. The cranks had failed.
Another meeting Of the council was
called. I'VE can't go on like this" said the
lord chamberlain. Half the army is
gene, and the factories are being closed.
Your majesty must act, and act promptly"
I'VE have acted" said the king, land
nothing has come of it. We have offered
a very large reward-our daughter and half
Of our kingdom. We have done all we
can" The king always spoke of himself
in the plural. He considered that he owed
1t to his position,
There is one thing that is always done