"I am here to seek the First Gentleman of Europe," (33) said a young
gallant. "You are on the road to him," rejoined the Wizard.
A jolly old chap, who resembled the King (34) noted for his penmanship,
walking up slowly, shouted:
"What insects (35) does everybody sleep on?"
The princess was yet to be won.
Jack-amend-all (36) then said, "Who was the first Lady Magistrate?" (37)
After poor Jack was despatched, there came up the citizen (38) of New
Jersey who laid plans to kill King George III., but fired some British
naval stores instead. He said this business of trying to get the
princess was coming to be so hazardous that, old as he was, he would
have to be allowed to ask four questions or none at all. The Wizard
agreed readily.
"Who (39) made the first use of steam-power in printing?" he asked, and
the Wizard answered promptly.
"In what city (40) was the first republican government in America
established?" The Wizard again answered promptly.
The man began to look grave. Half his chances were gone. Summoning
courage, he propounded this: "The name of the wife (41) of an English
admiral who tried to get state secrets from an American gentleman by
arranging some social games of whist." The Wizard related the incident,
with names of all parties, without an instant's hesitation. The sweat
began to start on the man's face. Only one chance remained. "Name the
prince, (42) afterwards king of England," said he, desperately, "whose
wife sucked the poison from his arm when he had a narrow escape from
assassination while on his way home from a Crusade."
The Wizard named the prince and finished the Jerseyman in the same
breath.
After that he was without a job for a time. The princess's conditions
seemed so hard that, unless she modified them, she was likely, as the
Wizard expressed it, "to die an old maid." He was about to give the
princess up to that fate when Queen Dick (43) entered.
"Where do you come from?"
"From Frisco." (44)
"What do you want?"
"To win the Princess Minnehaha. Answer this:
"T U A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A." (45)
"Well, what is it, anyhow?" asked the Wizard.
"Something that you'll find very prominently printed in a book that you
and most other people own," replied the suitor.
"Are the letters printed in the book in this form?" inquired the Wizard,
getting a bit scared, and trying to gain time.
"In this style and order, yes; but there are other letters and words
between them. Come, shall I have the princess?"
The Wizard took five minutes, and gave it up. Dick won the princess, and
in the bounteousness of his heart invited all the Knights and Ladies of
the Round Table to visit him and see who was wiser than the Wizard.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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