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I
N the Far East there was a great king who had no work to
do. Every day, and all day long, he sat on soft
"There is only one fault that I find with your story," he often said: "it is too short."
All the story-tellers in the world were
At last he sent word into every city and town and country
place, offering a prize to any one who should tell him an
endless tale. He
"To the man that will tell me a story which shall last
forever, I will give my fairest
But this was not all. He added a very hard condition. "If any man shall try to tell such a story, and then fail, he shall have his head cut off."
The king's daughter was very pretty, and there were many young men in that country who were willing to do anything to win her. Bnt none of them wanted to lose their heads, and so only a few tried for the prize.
One young man invented a story that lasted three months; but at the end of that time, he could think of nothing more. His fate was a warning to others, and it was a long time before another story-teller was so rash as to try the king's patience.
But one day a
"Great king," he said, "is it true that you offer a prize to the man who can tell a story that has no end?"
"It is true," said the king.
"And shall this man have your fairest daughter for his wife, and shall he be your heir?"
"Yes, if he
"Very well, then," said the
"Tell it," said the king. "I will listen to you."
The story-teller began his tale.
"Once upon a time a certain king seized upon all the corn
in his country, and stored it away in a strong
Day after day, week after week, the man kept on saying, "Then another locust went in and carried away a grain of corn."
A month passed; a year passed. At the end of two years, the
king
"How much longer will the locusts be going in and carrying away corn?"
"O king!" said the story-teller, "they have as yet cleared
only one cubit; and there are many
"Man, man!" cried the king, "you will drive me mad. I can listen to it no longer. Take my daughter; be my heir; rule my kingdom. But do not let me hear another word about those horrible locusts!"
And so the strange story-teller married the
king's daughter. And he lived happily in the land for many
years. But his