(1) He had an only daughter called Minnehaha. (2) She was a
very obedient girl in every respect save one--she would not hearken to
the suit of Harry Hotspur, (3) whom her father had determined she must
marry. Continuing in her refusal, her father threatened to imprison her
in the Plenty Perplexing Puzzle Palace, known as the Four Pi's, (4) the
residence of the English Merlin. (5) Finally a compromise was
effected--the princess was to marry that man, be he prince or beggar,
who should present a query to the King's Wizard which he could not
answer. If, however, the Wizard did answer correctly, the propounder of
the query was to lose his head.

All the details being fixed, a band of naturalists on their way to the
Island of the Moon (6) stopped to try their fortunes. In turn they asked
for the edible English philosopher, (7) the species of mollusk that is
used in all printing-offices, (8) the bird that is always in evening
dress, (9) the bird (10) that sometimes brings corns on your feet, the
animal that cannot say no, (11) the insect that fills the new Boston
Public Library to the number of many thousands, (12) and the fish (13)
that everybody seeks after. As the Wizard replied to all correctly, he
chopped off the heads of the questioners. Then Dick the Scholar (14)
arrived, and demanded the Story of Molorchos. (15) As soon as the story
had been related, Dick's head followed the others into the basket. Next
came the Knight of the Lions, (16) singing:

"A hundred and fifty if rightly applied
To a place where the living did once all abide--
Or a consonant joined to a sweet-singing bird--
Will give you a name that you've oftentimes heard.
Which 'mong your friends at least one person owns;
It's a rival of Grey, and as common as Jones." (17)

The Wizard was wise.

A quartet of historians now made their appearance; they asked,
respectively, for the statesman (18) who has always been a thorn in the
side of Americans; the Colonial general (19) who might have been used to
close the Revolution; the American poet (20)whose mouth was larger than
his head; and the New England doctor (21) for which the city of
Philadelphia is famed.

Once more the King's agent triumphed. Next came the most learned (22) of
all the Romans, who asked for Molly Maguires. (23) "You are only fit to
wear a steeple-crowned hat," (24) said the wise man when he had given
the required explanation, "but I will be lenient with you."

Just now a