The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-07

when they asked him for his symptoms.
"A King has no symptoms said
the High Commissioner of the Royal
Candlestick, and ordered the guards to
drag the three medical persons to a
dungeon.
| The King continued to roar with
pain, and between roars he would laugh
at the wonderful joke of the Court Jes-
ter. He roared and laughed for sew
enteen hours. Then he ordered the
Court Jester to be dragged away 10
/ the dungeon across the way from the
one where the medical persons were
/ shivering and fretting.
| For thirty days and thirty nights the
/ King rolled and tossed with pain: ana
| every few minutes he would try 10
! ease his anguish by ordering some-
/ body to be imprisoned, until at last
/ all the dungeons in the castle were so
/ full that the Lord High Health Com
missioner declared that ii was against
rule number forty-eight of the Board
/ OF Health; so the King had to stop i'm
! prisoning people.
Besides, he was beginning to get an
! idea that it was not making his pains
any better, much to his surprise.
In this critical moment, he decided
| to forgive the insult that the Royal
| Court Physician and the Royal Court
! Pill PurVeyor and the Royal Court
Plaster had offered to him when they
asked for his symptoms: and he sent
for them to cure him.
But, alas! The ungrateful persons
had broken out of Jail and NOBODY
| knew where they had gone.
Send for Tafistik!" cried the de-
spairing King. Warn him not to make
me laugh, but tell him that he must
devise something to cure me, or
| shall have his head cut of with dull
jack knife and stuck up on the PIN
nacle of the palace"
Taffistik thought very quickly when
he heard the order, and when the
guards led him to the King he mad
his plan.
He knew that the Kings trouble
was dyspepsia, although 1t was
against the court rules to tell him so
and he knew that it would never
get better as long as King Sourgloom-
er stuffed himself with goodies the
way he was doing, despite his pains.
So Taffistik stepped to the wall and
| with a charcoal he drew CHECKER
| board with incomplete outlines in the
white spaces.
Then he drew eleven square pieces
on which he scratched queer lines.
"Oh, great and splendid Sourgloom-
err, chief of all the Sourgloomers!
said Taf1stik, prostrating himself
| eleven times. Know lnen, on, InoSl
potent King, that if your majesty viii
but fit these eleven pieces on the
board properly, the center squares Of
black will disappear entirely, and II
their place my own portrait will ap-
pear unbroken by any square of black
But you cannot work it out unless you
refrain from eating and drinking
while you are at work on the prob
| lem
And how will this cure me"
howled King Sourgloomer.
IF you are sure not to eat and drink
it will cure you positively, oh, great
King!" said Taffistik, prostrating HIM
self hurriedly fourteen times. You
will be better the moment you solve
the problem
The King at once set to work. He
worked for seven days and eight
nights. He became so absorbed in II
that he never noticed that his pair
began to stop as soon as he stopped
eating.
And so, when, at the end of the
eighth night he had solved the puz-
zle, he jumped and capered with pleas
ure, for he didn't have a bit of pain
left.
Can you fit the eleven pieces ir
properly as King Sourgloomer did?