Once on a Time Book

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II THE CHANCELLOR OF BARODIA HAS A LONG WALK HOME ONCE more it was early morning on the castle walls. The King sat at his breakfast table, a company of archers drawn up in front of him. "Now you all understand," he said. "When the King of Baro?when a certain? well, when I say 'when,' I want you all to fire your arrows into the air. You are totake no aim; you are just to shoot your arrows upwards, and?er?I want to see who gets highest. Should anything?er?should anything brush up against them on their way? not of course that it's likely?well, in that case ?er?in that case, something will?er?brush up against them. After all, what should? " "Quite so, Sire," said the Captain, "or rather, not at all." "Very well. To your places." Each archer fitted an arrow to his bow and took up his position. A look-out man had been posted. Everything was ready. The King was decidedly nervous. He wandered from one archer to another asking after this man's wife and family, praising the polish on that man's quiver, or advising him to stand with his back a little more to the sun. Now and then he would hurry off to the look-out man on a distant turret, point out Barodia on the horizon to him, and hurry back again. The look-out knew all about it. "Royalty over," he bellowed suddenly. "When!" roared the King, and a cloud of arrows shot into air. "Well done!" cried Hyacinth, clapping her hands. "I mean, how could you? You might have hurt him." "Hyacinth," said the King, turning suddenly; "you here?" "I have just come up. Did you hit him?" "Hit who?" "The King of Barodia, of course," "The King of My dear child, what could the King of Barodia be doing here? My archers were aiming at a hawk that they saw in the distance." He beckoned to the Captain...Read More