ould only stir him up and make him more vicious. And I know of no
other beast we can set against him, as I did with the Fire-beast and the
Ice-beast, when I was young. Oh, for an idea!"

Then his mind, somehow, went back to the Council and the ponderous
stupidity of the Prime Minister.

"Heavier than lead," said the king. "By George! I have a plan. If I
could get to the place where they keep the Stupidity, I could carry away
enough of it to flatten out the Earthquaker."

Then he remembered how, in an old Italian poem, he had read about all the
strange lumber-room of odd things which is kept in the moon. That is the
advantage of reading: _Knowledge is Power_; and you mostly get knowledge
that is really worth having out of good old books which people do not
usually read.

"If the Stupidity is kept in stock, up in the moon, and comes from there,
falling naturally down on the earth in small quantities, I might obtain
enough for my purpose," thought King Prigio. "But--how to get to the
moon? There are difficulties about that."

But difficulties only sharpened the ingenuity of this admirable king.

"The other fellow had a Flying Horse," said he.

By "the other fellow" King Prigio meant an Italian knight, Astolfo, who,
in old times, visited the moon, and there found and brought back the
common sense of his friend, Orlando, as you may read in the poem of
Ariosto.

"Now," reasoned King Prigio, "if there is a Flying Horse at all, he is in
the stables of the King of Delhi. I must look into this."

Taking the magic spy-glass, the king surveyed the world from China to
Peru, and, sure enough, there was the famous Flying Horse in the king's
stable at Delhi. Hastily the king thrust his feet into the Shoes of
Swiftness--so hastily, indeed, that, as the poet says, he "madly crammed
a left-hand foot into a right-hand shoe." But this, many people think,
is a sign of good luck; so he put the shoes on the proper feet, and in a
few minutes was in the presence of the Great Mogul.

The monarch received him with some surprise, but with stately kindness,
and listened to Prigio while he explained what he wanted.

"I am only too happy to assist so adventurous a prince," remarked the
Great Mogul. "This is like old times! Every horse in my stable is at
your service, but, as you say, only the Flying Horse is of any use to you
in this expedition."

He clapped his hands, the Grand Vizier appeared, and the king gave orders
to h