myself to----"

"Try it, Guv'nor--and see what happens."

"Oh well, it's all nonsense--all nonsense--but--er--'Little table be
laid.'"

Instantly the table was covered with a snowy linen cloth and laid with a
daintily prepared meal for one person, including a small flagon of wine
and a knife and even a two-pronged fork.

"Neat, isn't it?" remarked Clarence. "The little joker wouldn't part
with it at first--afraid of getting into more hot water about it."

"I don't suppose for a moment the food's genuine," said the King.
"Well," he pronounced, after trying it, "I'm bound to say it's quite
tasty--really very tasty indeed. I think I'll have a little more--ate so
little at lunch. The wine isn't at all bad either--sort of Moselle
flavour. It would be awkward if your mother were to come in just now,
eh?"

"If you've done," said Clarence, "all you've got to say is: 'Little
table, be cleared.'"

The King repeated the words, and the table became bare as before.

"Highly ingenious," he said; "but all the same, my boy, considering the
_cuisine_ we have in the Palace already, it seems a waste of money to
buy it."

"But there's money in it, Guv'nor--money enough to make us all
millionaires if we go the right way to work it! Listen to me. Xuriel
says he could easily make any quantity of these tables--produce 'em in
all styles and sizes, to dine any number, if you and the Mater will only
give him a free hand."

"I think you're forgetting, my boy," said King Sidney with dignity,
"that there is a law--a law which your mother and I think a very wise
and salutary one--against the practice of anything in the nature
of--ah--Magic in our dominions."

"Oh, I know _that_," said Clarence. "But you can alter it easily enough,
can't you?"

"No doubt we could. But why _should_ we?"

"Do you mean to say you don't see why? And you've been a business man
all your life! Of course, we shouldn't give Xuriel such a concession as
this except on our own terms. He's willing to let us take two-thirds of
the selling price of every table he sells. And they'll sell like hot
cakes! Why, there won't be a family in all Maerchenland that can afford
to be without one. They'll pay any price we like to put on such an
article as this. Just _think_ of it, Dad! No expenses--no risk--and a
bigger income than we could ever hope for from any bally mine. You
_can't_ let a chance like that slip through your fingers!"

"I quite see the possibilities, my boy!