Part 31 (1/2)

All Things are as Fate wills; and the young king did not like the taste of thereatness ”That is not so,”

said he, pointing to the words on the wall ”Let them be painted out, and these words written in their place:

All Things are as Man does”

Now, the chief councillor was a grave old 's father ”Do not be too hasty, ,” said he ”Try first the truth of your oords before you wipe out those that your father has written”

”Very well,” said the young king, ”so be it I will approve the truth of ar from the tohom Fate has made poor, and I will make him rich So I will show you that his life shall be as I will, and not as Fate wills”

Now, in that town there was a poor beggar- for soave hiot, for Fate was against hi and the chief councillor had had their talk together, as the beggar sat holding up his wooden bowl and asking charity of those who passed by, there suddenly ca a word, clapped hold of hiar talked and questioned--in vain that he begged and besought theood or bad At last they caarden, and there the three stopped, and one of the it flew open He thrust the beggar into the garden neck and crop, and then the gate was banged to again

But what a sight it was the beggar saw before his eyes!--flowers, and fruit-trees, and reat fountain that shot up a jet of water as white as snow But he had not long to stand gaping and staring around hireat nu to hile question, or ashim time to think, led him to a marble bath of tepid water There he was stripped of his tattered clothes and washed as clean as snow Then, as some of the attendants dried hi clothes fit for a prince to wear, and clad the beggar in the a word, they let hiain, and there he found still other attendants waiting for hi a milk-white horse, saddled and bridled, and fit for an e into their own saddles, rode aith the beggar in their arden and into the streets, and on and on they went until they ca's palace, and there they stopped Courtiers and noble, some of whom helped hiar was so overcome onder that he stared like onethe way up the palace steps, they conducted hirand and splendid than all the rest, and there sat the king hiar would have flung hi would not let hi the beggar by the hand, led hiave orders to the attendants who stood about, and a feast was served in plates of solid gold upon a table-cloth of silver--a feast such as the beggar had never dreamed of, and the poor man ate as he had never eaten in his life before

All the while that the king and the beggar were eating, ers sang

Then when the feast was over there caons of all kinds, full of the best wine in the world; and the beggar drank as he had never drank in his life before, and until his head spun like a top

So the king and the beggar feasted andarose froar, ”all these things have been done to show you that Luck and Fate, which have been against you for all these years, are now for you Hereafter, instead of being poor you shall be the richest of the rich, for I will give you the greatest thing that I have in my treasury,” Then he called the chief treasurer, who caolden tray in his hand Upon the tray was a purse of silk ”See,” said the king, ”here is a purse, and in the purse are one hundred pieces of gold reat to you, it is but little of the true value of the purse Its virtue lies in this: that however much you oldthe riches which I give you, I have only to ask you to reifts of Fate, but of a ar's head was spinning and spinning, and buzzing and buzzing, so that he hardly heard a word of what the king said

Then when the king had ended his speech, the lords and gentleain Out they went through rooate

Bang!--it was shut to behind hiht, with the splendid clothes upon his back, and the oldabout hiering and stu, for the wine that he had drank ht-headed that all the world spun topsy-turvy around hi by the river, and on he went stu

All of a sudden--plump! splash!+--he was in the water over head and ears

Up he ca for help, splashi+ng and sputtering, and kicking and swi no more where he was than the man in the moon Soain

At last, just as his strength was failing him, his feet struck the bottom, and he crawled up on the shore h fear and cold and wet, he swooned away, and lay for a long tih he were dead

Now, it chanced that two fisherht, and Luck or Fate led thear lay on the shore

”Halloa!” said one of the fishermen, ”here is a poor body drowned!” They turned him over, and then they sahat rich clothes he wore, and felt that he had a purse in his pocket

”Come,” said the second fisherman, ”he is dead, whoever he is His fine clothes and his purse of ht as well have thegar of all that the king had given hiar awoke fro without a stitch to his back, and half dead with the cold and the water he had sed Then, fearing lest sorew beside the river, there to hide hiain

But as he went, crawling upon hands and knees, he suddenly came upon a bundle that had been washed up by the water, and when he laid eyes upon it his heart leaped within him, for what should that bundle be but the patches and tatters which he had worn the day before, and which the attendants had thrown over the garden wall and into the river when they had dressed hiave him