The Floating Prince and Other Fairy Tales. Frank Richard Stockton

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      THE ARISTOCRATS WINDING UP THE CITY.

       Suddenly, a great gilded door, directly opposite to them, was thrown wide open, and a king and queen came forth. The king glanced around, eagerly.

      ​"Hello!" he cried, as his eyes fell upon the cluster of frightened aristocrats. "I believe it is those boys! Look here," said he, advancing, "did you boys wind us up?"

      "Yes, sir," said the Head-boy, "I think we did. But we didn't mean to. If you'd let us off this time, we'd never——"

      "Let you off!" cried the king. "Not until we've made you the happiest boys on earth! Do you suppose we're angry? Never such a mistake! What do you think of that?" he said, turning to the queen.

      This royal lady, who was very fat, made no answer, but smiled, good-humoredly.

      "You're our greatest benefactors," continued the king. "I don't know what we can do for you. You did not imagine perhaps, that you were winding us up. Few people, besides ourselves, know how things are with us. This city goes all right for ten years, and then it runs down, and has to be wound up. When we feel we have nearly run down, we go into our houses and apartments, and shut up everything tight and strong. Only this hall is left open, so that somebody can come in, and wind us up. It takes a good many people to do it, and I am glad there were so many of you. Once we were wound up by a lot of bears, who wandered in and tried to go upstairs. But they didn't half do it, and we only ran four years. The city has been still—like a clock with its works stopped—for as long as a hundred years at once. I don't know how long it was this time. I'm going to have it calculated. How did you happen to get here?"

      The boys then told how they had come in a ship, with the admiral, their master, and four philosophers.

      "And the ship is here!" cried the king. "Run!" he shouted ​to his attendants, "and bring hither those worthy men, that they may share in the honor and rewards of their pupils."

      While the attendants were gone, the aristocrats waited in the hall, and the king went away to attend to other matters. The queen sat down on a sofa near by.

      "It tires me dreadfully to smile," she said, as she wiped her brow; "but I have to take some exercise."

      "I hope they won't bring 'em here, bags and all," whispered the Tail-boy. "It would look funny, but I shouldn't like it."

      In a short time the king came back in a hurry.

      "How's this?" he cried. "My messengers tell me that there is no ship at our piers excepting our own vessels. Have you deceived me?"

      The aristocrats gazed at each other in dismay. Had their ship sailed away and left them? If so, they had only been served aright They looked so downcast and guilty that the king knew something was wrong.

      "What have you done?" said he.

      The Head-boy saw that there was no help for it, and he told all.

      The king looked sad, but the queen smiled two or three times.

      "And you put their heads in bags?" said the king.

      "Yes, sir," replied the Head-boy.

      "Well, well!" said the king; "I am sorry. After all you have done for us, too. I will send out swift cruisers after that ship, which will be easy to find if it is painted as you say, and, until it is brought back to the city, I must keep you in custody. Look you," said he to his attendants; "take these young people to a luxurious apartment, and see that they are well fed and cared for, and also be very careful that none of them escape."

      ​Thereupon, the aristocrats were taken away to an inner chamber of the palace.

      When the admiral and his companions had been left on board the vessel, they felt very uneasy for they did not know what might happen to them next. In a short time, however, when the voices of the aristocrats had died away as they proceeded into the city, the admiral perceived the point of a gimlet coming up through the deck, close to him. Then the gimlet was withdrawn, and these words came up through the hole:

      "Have no fear. Your navy will stand by you!"

      "It will be all right," said the admiral to the others. "I can depend upon her."

      And now was heard a noise of banging and chopping, and soon the cook cut her way from her imprisonment below, and made her appearance on deck. She went to work vigorously, and, taking the bags from the prisoners' heads, unbound them, and set them at liberty. Then she gave them a piece of advice.

      "The thing for us to do." said she, "is to get away from here as fast as we can. If those young rascals come back, there's no knowin' what they'll do."

      "Do you mean," said the master, "that we should sail away and desert my scholars? Who can tell what might happen to them, left here by themselves?"

      "We should not consider what might happen to them if they were left," said one of the philosophers, "but what might happen to us if they were not left. We must away."

      "Certainly!" cried the admiral. "While I have the soul of the commander of the navy of Nassimia left within me, I will not stay here to have my head put in a bag! Never! Set sail!"

      It was not easy to set sail, for the cook and the philosophers were not very good at that sort of work; but they got the sail ​up at last, and cast loose from shore, first landing the old master, who positively refused to desert his scholars. The admiral took the helm, and, the wind being fair, the ship sailed away.

      The swift cruiser, which was sent in the direction taken by the admiral's vessel, passed her in the night, and as she was a very fast cruiser, and it was therefore impossible for the admiral's ship to catch up with her, the two vessels never met.

      "Now, then," said the admiral the next day, as he sat with the helm in his hand, "we are free again to sail where we please. But I do not like to sail without an object. What shall be our object?"

      The philosophers immediately declared that nothing could be more proper than that they should take a voyage to make some great scientific discovery.

      "All right," said the admiral. "That suits me. What СКАЧАТЬ