l progress of the same devastating kind
but more complete, since the prince surprised a little girl and pulled
her hair. The fond English mothers still observed him with a gloating
air, happy to be on the same stretch of sand with him. They said
indulgently to one another: "Boys will be boys," or, with conviction:
"Such a manly little fellow."

This time the Baron von Habelschwert walked only fifteen yards behind the
prince. He smiled benignly on the destruction of the castles; plainly he
felt that his young charge was treating the so-soon-to-be-subjugated
English in the right spirit.

There was only one check to the royal progress. The sand-castle on which
Pollyooly and Kathleen had worked so hard stood directly in the line of
it. Kathleen and Mary fled to their nurse at the approach of the prince,
calling wildly to Pollyooly to follow. Pollyooly leaving the Lump in the
castle, stepped out of it, and spade in hand calmly awaited the coming of
the prince.

When he was three yards from her she said quietly but very distinctly:

"You keep away."

[Illustration: "You keep away"]

The prince advanced two steps and stopped. There was that in Pollyooly's
deep blue eyes which gave him pause. He advanced another step, and
stopped again. Then he called her "pig-dog," in his native tongue,
turned aside, and pursued his way. As he went he kept looking back at
her, scowling malevolently.

Pollyooly gazed after him with unchanging face. She would have liked to
put her tongue a long way out at him; but she felt that red Deepings did
not do so.

The nurse came down to the castle with Kathleen and Mary, and said in a
tone of respectful awe:

"However you dare, miss! And him a prince too!"

"I don't care a pin for him," said Pollyooly calmly.

She stepped back to the castle and continued the work of construction.

CHAPTER XII

WHAT THE PRINCE ASKED FOR

The royal progress was the event of the morning and afternoon for
several days before it occurred to Pollyooly to tell the Honourable
John Ruffin about it. Then one evening, on their way to bathe, she
told him.

The Honourable John Ruffin stood still on the edge of the sea, looked
at her thoughtfully, and said:

"This is interesting indeed. I had no idea that German aggression had
extended to this retired spot."

"And he's such an ugly little boy," said Pollyooly.

"And he is all alone?"

"Oh, no: there's a baron with him to look after him--w