regarding Columbus, and, taking the
letter, asked Talavera to send him to the royal sitting-room at ten
o'clock the following day.

When Columbus arose the next morning he found a note from the royal
confessor, and, without waiting for breakfast, for he had almost
overcome the habit of eating, he reversed his cuffs, and, taking a fresh
handkerchief from his valise and putting it in his pocket so that the
corners would coyly stick out a little, he was soon on his way to the
palace. He carried also a small globe wrapped up in a newspaper.

The interview was encouraging until the matter of money necessary for
the trip was touched upon. His Majesty was called in, and spoke sadly of
the public surplus. He said that there were one hundred dollars still
due on his own salary, and the palace had not been painted for eight
years. He had taken orders on the store till he was tired of it. "Our
meat bill," said he, taking off his crown and mashing a hornet on the
wall, "is sixty days overdue. We owe the hired girl for three weeks; and
how are we going to get funds enough to do any discovering, when you
remember that we have got to pay for an extra session this fall for the
purpose of making money plenty?"

[Illustration: COLUMBUS AT COURT.]

But Isabella came and sat by him in her winning way, and with the
moistened corner of her handkerchief removed a spot of maple syrup from
the ermine trimming of his reigning gown. She patted his hand, and, with
her gentle voice, cheered him and told him that if he would economize
and go without cigars or wine, in less than two hundred years he would
have saved enough to fit Columbus out.

A few weeks later he had saved one hundred and fifty dollars in this
way. The queen then went at twilight and pawned a large breastpin, and,
although her chest was very sensitive to cold, she went without it all
the following winter, in order that Columbus might discover America
before immigration set in here.

Too much cannot be said of the heroism of Queen Isabella and the courage
of her convictions. A man would have said, under such circumstances,
that there would be no sense in discovering a place that was not
popular. Why discover a place when it is so far out of the way? Why
discover a country with no improvements? Why discover a country that is
so far from the railroad? Why discover, at great expense, an entirely
new country?

But Isabella did not stop to listen to these croaks. In the language