r ruler. And so he does every thing
that he can to make them happy and contented, for he knows if he does
not please them and govern them well, they will gradually drop off
from him and go to other clusters, and he will be left without any
people or any kingdom."

"That is a very queer way of ruling," said the King. "I think the
people ought to try to please their sovereign."

"He is only one, and they are a great many," said the Sphinx.
"Consequently they are much more important. No subject is ever
allowed to look down upon a king, simply because he helps to feed and
clothe him, and send his children to school. If any one does a thing
of this kind, he is banished until he learns better."

"All that may be very well for Gaumers," said the King, "but I can
learn nothing from a government like that, where every thing seems to
be working in an opposite direction from what everybody knows is
right and proper. A king anxious to deserve the good opinion of his
subjects! What nonsense! It ought to be just the other way. The ideas
of this people are as dwarfish as their bodies."

The King now arose and took up the line of march, turning away from
the country of the Gaumers. But he had not gone more than two or
three hundred yards before he received a message from the Queen. It
came to him very rapidly, every man in the line seeming anxious to
shout it to the man ahead of him as quickly as possible. The message
was to the effect that he must either stop where he was or come home:
his constantly lengthening line of communication had used up all the
chief officers of the government, all the clerks in the departments,
and all the officials of every grade, excepting the few who were
actually needed to carry on the government, and if any more men went
into the line it would be necessary to call upon the laborers and
other persons who could not be spared.

"I think," said the Sphinx, "that you have made your line long
enough."

"And I think," said the King. "that you made it a great deal longer
than it need to have been, by taking me about in such winding ways."

"It may be so," said the Sphinx, with its mystic smile.

"Well, I am not going to stop here," said the King, "and so I might
as well go back as soon as I can." And he shouted to the head man of
the line to pass on the order that his edict of banishment be
revoked.

In a very short time the news came that the edict was revoked. The
King then commanded that the proc