rning when he awoke to find himself whiskerless. Barodia had
no more use for him now as a King, and he on his side was eager to
carve out for himself a new life as a swineherd.

"I had a natural gift," he said plaintively, "an instinctive feeling
for it. I know I had. Whatever they said about it afterwards--and
they said many hard things--I was certain that I had that feeling. I
had proved it, you know; there couldn't be any mistake."

"Well?"

"Ah, but they laughed at me. They asked me confusing questions;
niggling little questions about the things swine ate and--and things
like that. The great principles of swineherding, the--what I may call
the art of herding swine, the whole theory of shepherding pigs in a
broad-minded way, all this they ignored. They laughed at me and
turned me out with jeers and blows--to starve."

Merriwig patted him sympathetically, and pressed some more food on
him.

"I ranged over the whole of Barodia. Nobody would take me in. It is
a terrible thing, my dear Merriwig, to begin to lose faith in
yourself. I had to tell myself at last that perhaps there was
something about Barodian swine which made them different from those of
any other country. As a last hope I came to Euralia; if here too I
was spurned, then I should know that----"

"Just a moment," said Merriwig, breaking in eagerly. "Who was this
swineherd that you talked to----"

"I talked to so many," said the other sadly. "They all scoffed at
me."

"No, but the first one; the one that showed you that you had a bent
towards it. Didn't you say that----"

"Oh, that one. That was at the beginning of our war. Do you remember
telling me that your swineherd had an invisible cloak? It was he
that----"

Merriwig looked at him sadly and shook his head.

"My poor friend," he said, "it was me."

They gazed at each other earnestly. Each of them was going over in
his mind the exact details of that famous meeting.

"Yes," they murmured together, "it was us."

The King of Barodia's mind raced on through all the bitter months that
had followed; he shivered as he thought of the things he had said; the
things that had been said to him seemed of small account now.

"Not even a swineherd!" he remarked.

"Come, come," said Merriwig, "look on the bright side; you can always
be a King again."

The late King of Barodia shook his head.

"It's a come down to a man with any pride," he said. "No, I'll stick
to my own job. A