good as new, and dad says it is worth
all the stuff cost, but I would not be found dead wearing it, cause it
is all out of style.

We have seen the King of Belgium, and actually got the worth of our
money. He is an old dandy, and looks like a Philadelphia Quaker, only
he is not as pious as a Quaker. Dad wrote to the King and said he was
a distinguished American, traveling for his health, and had a niece who
had frequently visited Belgium with an opera company, and she had
spoken of the King, and dad wanted to talk over matters that might be of
interest both to Belgium and to America. Well, the messenger came back
and said dad couldn't get to the palace a minute too quick, and so we
went over, and as we were going through the park we saw an old man, in
citizen's clothes, sitting on a bench, patting the head of a boar hound,
and when he saw us he said, "Come here, Uncle Sam, and let my dog chew
your pants." Dad thought it must be some lunatic, and was going to make
a sneak, and get out, when the man rose up and we saw it was the King,
and we went up to him and sat down on the bench, and he asked dad if he
had come as the relative of the opera singer, to commence suit against
the King for breach of promise, or to settle for a money consideration,
remarking that he had always rather pay cash than to have any fuss made
about these little matters. Dad told him he had no claim against him for
alienating anybody's affections, or for breach of promise, and that all
he wanted was to have a little talk with the King, and find out how a
King lived, and how he had any fun in running the king business, at his
age, and they sat down and began to talk as friendly as two old chums,
while the dog played tag with me. We found that the King was a regular
boy, and that instead of his mind being occupied by affairs of state,
or his African concessions in the Congo country, where he owns a few
million slaves who steal ivory for him, and murder other tribes, he was
enjoying life just as he did when he was a barefooted boy, fishing for
perch at the old mill pond, and when he mentioned his career as a boy,
and his enjoyments, dad told about his youth, and how he never got so
much pleasure in after life as he did when he had a stone bruise on his
heel, and went off into the woods and cut a tamarack pole and caught
sunfish till the cows came home.

The King brightened up and told dad he had a pond in the palace grounds,
stocked with old-fashioned