d plan after plan, and
sometimes two or three together, and have kept this up year after
year, and yet nothing seems to do my kingdom any good."

"Have you heard how things are going on there now?" asked the Sphinx.

"Give it up," said the King. "But I don't mind saying of my own
accord, and not as answer to any question, that I have sent a good
many communications to my Queen, but have never received any from
her. So I do not know how things are going on in my kingdom."

They then travelled on, the long line of followers coming after,
keeping their relative positions a hundred yards apart, and passing
over all the ground the King had traversed in his circuitous walks
about the city. Thus the line crept along like an enormous snake in
straight lines, loops, and coils; and every time the King walked a
hundred yards a fresh man from his capital city was obliged to take
his place at the tail of the procession.

"By the way," said the Sphinx, after they had walked an hour or more,
"if you want to see a kingdom where there really is something to
learn, you ought to go to the country of the Gaumers, which we are
now approaching."

"All right," said the King. "Let us go there."

In the course of the afternoon they reached the edge of a high bluff.
"On the level ground, beneath this precipice," said the Sphinx, "is
the country of the dwarfs called Gaumers. You can sit on the edge of
the bluff and look down upon it."

The King and the Sphinx then sat down, and looked out from the edge
over the country of the little people. The officer of the court who
had formed the head of the line wished very much to see what they
were looking at, but, when the line halted, he was not near enough.

"You will notice," said the Sphinx, "that the little houses and huts
are gathered together in clusters. Each one of these clusters is
under a separate king."

"Why don't they all live under one ruler?" asked the King. "That is
the proper way."

"They do not think so," said the Sphinx. "In each of these clusters
live the Gaumers who are best suited to each other; and, if any
Gaumer finds he cannot get along in one cluster, he goes to another.
The kings are chosen from among the very best of them, and each one
is always very anxious to please his subjects. He knows that every
thing that he, and his queen, and his children eat, or drink, or
wear, or have must be given to him by his subjects, and if it were
not for them he could not be thei