CHAPTER XVII
SPRING-TIME
THE spring, so dear to all creatures, young and old, came at last, and
before the first few days of it had gone, the king rode through its
budding valleys to see his little daughter. He had been in a distant
part of his dominions all the winter, for he was not in the habit of
stopping in one great city, or of visiting only his favorite country
houses, but he moved from place to place, that all his people might
know
him. Wherever he journeyed, he kept a constant lookout for the ablest
and best men to put into office, and wherever he found himself
mistaken,
and those he had appointed incapable or unjust, he removed them at
once.
Hence you see it was his care of the people that kept him from seeing
his princess so often as he would have liked. You may wonder why he
did
not take her about with him; but there were several reasons against his
doing so, and I suspect her great-great-grandmother had had a
principal
Madhuri Noah
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