TEE STORY OF A KING AND QUEEN 251 



THE STORY OF A KING AND QUEEN 



By Pbofessoe CYRIL G. HOPKINS 



UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 



ONCE upon a time a young king started out to find a better country 

 and a better people. He had been born and raised among the 

 common children of his country, but none of them suspected him to 

 be a king. Even he himself scarcely realized his royal birth, and never 

 guessed the golden harvest that one day would be his after he had really 

 discovered his own country and established his rule over it. 



So eager was he to find his kingdom and the people he was to rule 

 over that he set out even before he was fully grown, and like all good 

 travelers followed the sun westward, leaving behind the rugged hill- 

 sides where as a child he had lived near the great sea. 



Westward, ever westward, the young king traveled, and once he 

 thought he had found his land and his people beyond the mountains in 

 the valley of the Great Miami ; x but he soon learned that he was to rule 

 a larger kingdom in a greater country still nearer the setting sun. And 

 as he wandered on, he came, at last, to the Land of the Illini 2 which 

 stretched away farther than the eye could see, a broad expanse of almost 

 unbroken prairie land. 



" This," said he, " is my country, here will I prosper, here will I 

 be happy, and here will I stay and establish my kingdom." The young 

 king found an ideal home for himself on this dark prairie soil, and 

 for many years he lived as a very independent bachelor ; but there finally 

 came a time when the supply of food which he had found- already pre- 

 pared in the soil became partially exhausted, and in hunger he said to 

 himself. " It is not good for man to be alone." He then sought a 

 princess named " Clover," and thereafter always rejoiced that she con- 

 sented to be his queen. "Where she prepared the soil, King Corn was 

 again as well fed as ever. 



Queen Clover found that the supply of food in the soil had not been 

 completely exhausted during King Corn's life as a bachelor, but only 

 that the supply of some ready prepared foodstuffs was much depleted, 

 and from the remaining total supply of raw materials she was able to 

 prepare much food fit for the king's use, and she was also able to prepare 

 the king's bed in the soil as it had never before been prepared for him. 



Years passed, and they were happy and prosperous years ; but finally 



1 The Miami Valley in Ohio. 



2 Illini is the Indian name for Illinois, which means the land of men. 



