nd, though he was not so bad as the world of men goes, he was not the
man that his father was, as this story will show you.

One day, as he sat with his chief councillor, his eyes fell upon the
words written in letters of gold upon the wall--the words that his
father had written there in time gone by:

All Things are as Fate wills; and the young king did not like the taste
of them, for he was very proud of his own greatness. "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 man, and had been councillor
to the young king's father. "Do not be too hasty, my lord king," said
he. "Try first the truth of your own words 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
my words. Bring me hither some beggar from the town whom 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-man who used to sit every
day beside the town gate, begging for something for charity's sake.
Sometimes people gave him a penny or two, but it was little or nothing
that he got, for Fate was against him.

The same day that the king 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 came three men who,
without saying a word, clapped hold of him and marched him off.

It was in vain that the beggar talked and questioned--in vain that he
begged and besought them to let him go. Not a word did they say to him,
either of good or bad. At last they came to a gate that led through a
high wall and into a garden, and there the three stopped, and one of
them knocked upon the gate. In answer to his knocking 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 marble walks, and a great fountain that shot up a
jet of water as white as snow. But he had not long to stand gaping and
staring around him, for in the garden were a great number of people,
who came hurrying to him, and who, without speaking a word to him or
answering a single question, or as much as giving him time to