med to prefer to be poor; he had seen others who had
been rich, but who appeared to be happier now than when they had plenty
of money,--and perhaps plenty of anxiety with it; he had seen others
who were poor and did not know it; but this was the first time that he
had ever seen any one of them offer him bread or anything else to eat.
No wonder he was surprised when this old woman held out to him the loaf
of bread!

She did not wait for him to ask her what she meant, but immediately
commenced to explain. She told him that she and her sick old husband
were among those to whom he had ordered food to be furnished, but that
for some time all that his agents had given them was bread such as the
loaf in her hand; bread so hard that it was almost impossible for old
people to eat it, and yet they must eat it or starve.

The king listened with attention to her story, and then he took the
loaf in his hands, and broke off a small piece of it.

"It is rather hard bread," he said, thoughtfully, while his attendants
bent over to look at it, as if it were a matter of the greatest
interest to them, although it is probable that they did not care a snap
of their fingers whether or not the old woman ever had any bread.

"Yes," said the king, "it _is_ hard bread." And then he stood thinking
about it. The old woman thought he was thinking of the trouble she and
her husband had in eating it, but she was very much mistaken.

He was thinking that he had ordered that these people be well fed; that
he had supplied the money to buy them good and nourishing food. Now, if
his poor pensioners received nothing but dry bread, and very stale,
hard bread at that, while he paid for good food for them, somebody must
be making money out of him, to whom he had no idea of being charitable
in this way.

Therefore he thought that if he wanted a thing well done, he must do it
himself, or see it done. In this case he determined to see it done.

He went into the old woman's house, and he talked to her sick husband
and herself, and examined into their condition. The old people thought
he was very good to say so much about their hard fare, and so he was;
but if they could have heard what he said afterward to his dishonest
agents, when he went home to his palace, they might have been surprised
to know what an important thing a piece of hard bread may sometimes
become.

And they might have thought, too, that it was a good thing for them, as
well as for other