"And how is he?" asked Beverly, jamming a hat pin through a helpless bunch of violets.

"He's ve'y 'spectably skun, yo' highness."

"I don't mean the animal, stupid."

"Yo' mean 'at Misteh Goat man? He's settin' up an' chattin' as if nothin' happened. He says to me 'at we staht on ouah way jes' as soon as yo' all eats yo' b'eakfus'. De bosses is hitched up an'—"

"Has everybody else eaten? Am I the only one that hasn't? "cried
Beverly.

"'Ceptin' me, yo' highness. Ah'm as hungry as a poah man's dawg, an'—"

"And he is being kept from the hospital because I am a lazy, good-for-nothing little—Come on, Aunt Fanny; we haven't a minute to spare. If he looks very ill, we do without breakfast."

But Baldos was the most cheerful man in the party. He was sitting with his back against a tree, his right arm in a sling of woven reeds, his black patch set upon the proper eye.

"You will pardon me for not rising," he said cheerily, "but, your highness, I am much too awkward this morning to act as befitting a courtier in the presence of his sovereign. You have slept well?"

"Too well, I fear. So well, in fact, that you have suffered for it. Can't we start at once?" She was debating within herself whether it would be quite good form to shake hands with the reclining hero. In the glare of the broad daylight he and his followers looked more ragged and famished than before, but they also appeared more picturesquely romantic.

"When you have eaten of our humble fare, your highness,—the last meal at the Hawk and Raven."

"But I'm not a bit hungry."

"It is very considerate of you, but equally unreasonable. You must eat before we sta