in the favor of the conquerors of
Regos, prepared his finest and most savory dishes for them, which
Rinkitink ate with much appetite and found so delicious that he ordered
the royal chef brought into the banquet hall and presented him with a
gilt button which the King cut from his own jacket.

"You are welcome to it," said he to the chef, "because I have eaten so
much that I cannot use that lower button at all."

Rinkitink was mightily pleased to live in a comfortable palace again and
to dine at a well-spread table. His joy grew every moment, so that he
came in time to be as merry and cheery as before Pingaree was despoiled.
And, although he had been much frightened during Inga's defiance of the
army of King Gos, he now began to turn the matter into a joke.

"Why, my boy," said he, "you whipped the big black-bearded King exactly
as if he were a schoolboy, even though you used no warlike weapon at all
upon him. He was cowed through fear of your magic, and that reminds me
to demand from you an explanation. How did you do it, Inga? And where
did the wonderful magic come from?"

[Illustration]

Perhaps it would have been wise for the Prince to have explained about
the magic pearls, but at that moment he was not inclined to do so.
Instead, he replied:

"Be patient, Your Majesty. The secret is not my own, so please do not
ask me to divulge it. Is it not enough, for the present, that the magic
saved you from death to-day?"

"Do not think me ungrateful," answered the King earnestly. "A million
spears fell on me from the wall, and several stones as big as mountains,
yet none of them hurt me!"

"The stones were not as big as mountains, sire," said the Prince with a
smile. "They were, indeed, no larger than your head."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Rinkitink.

"Quite sure, Your Majesty."

"How deceptive those things are!" sighed the King. "This argument
reminds me of the story of Tom Tick, which my father used to tell."

"I have never heard that story," Inga answered.

"Well, as he told it, it ran like this:

"When Tom walked out, the sky to spy,
A naughty gnat flew in his eye;
But Tom knew not it was a gnat--
He thought, at first, it was a cat.

"And then, it felt so very big,
He thought it surely was a pig
Till, standing still to hear it grunt,
He cried: 'Why, it's an _elephunt_!'

"But--when the gnat flew out again
And Tom was free from all his pain,
He said: 'There flew into my