oy. "Don't be
a silly," she replied, rather sharply. "Every one does it, except here,
where old fossils refuse to think that anything new can be proper.
If you're going to be that sort of a king when you grow up, I'll go
somewhere else to live."

Nikky looked gloomy. The prospect, although remote, was dreary. But,
as the horses were led out, and he helped Hedwig to her saddle, he
brightened. After all, the future was the future, and now was now.

"Catch me!" said Hedwig, and dug her royal heels into her horse's
flanks. The Crown Prince climbed into his saddle and followed. They were
off.

The riding-school had been built for officers of the army, but was now
used by the Court only. Here the King had ridden as a lad with young
Mettlich, his close friend even then. The favorite mare of his later
years, now old and almost blind, still had a stall in the adjacent royal
stables. One of the King's last excursions abroad had been to visit her.

Overhead, up a great runway, were the state chariots, gilt coaches of
inconceivable weight, traveling carriages of the post-chaise periods,
sleighs in which four horses drove abreast, their panels painted by the
great artists of the time; and one plain little vehicle, very shabby, in
which the royal children of long ago had fled from a Karnian invasion.

In one corner, black and gold and forbidding, was the imposing hearse in
which the dead sovereigns of the country were taken to their long sleep
in the vaults under the cathedral. Good, bad, and indifferent, one after
the other, as their hour came, they had taken this last journey in the
old catafalque, and had joined their forbears. Many they had been: men
of iron, men of blood, men of flesh, men of water. And now they lay in
stone crypts, and of all the line only two remained.

One and all, the royal vehicles were shrouded in sheets, except on one
day of each month when the sheets were removed and the public admitted.
But on that morning the great hearse was uncovered, and two men were
working, one at the upholstery, which he was brushing. The other was
carefully oiling the wood of the body. Save for them, the wide and dusky
loft was empty.

One was a boy, newly come from the country. The other was an elderly
man. It was he who oiled.

"Many a king has this carried," said the man. "My father, who was here
before me, oiled it for the last one."

"May it be long before it carries another!" commented the boy fervently.

"It w