THE KING WHO HAD NO APPETITE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 152, 29 June 1945, Page 3

THE KING WHO HAD NO APPETITE

By MARGARET LAW (14). The Queen of Timbako was worried. ' The King would not take his morning medicine, and that certainly showed that something was wrong. The King was usually a jovial man, round, plump and good-natured; but this morning he was cross, and every day was becoming thinner and thinner because he would not eat his porridge. Yet the Lord High Physician said there was nothing really wrong with him. It just looked like bad temper. '

"But, dear," said the Queen, one morning, "there is some lovely yellow cream to go with your porridge." "Cream," said the King, as he sat| looking at his porridge, "gives me indigestion." Whereupon he pushed away his plate and left the poor. Queen m tears. "Oh dear, what shall I do!" thought the Queen. At that moment a knock at the door was heard and the Lord High Chancellor strode in. "Good morning, your majesty," he said. "Don't you think the King is looking thin? We must do something about it."

"But what can we do?" cried the poor Queen, and they began to whisper so that the King might not overhear. The week dragged slowly by, and still at breakfast-time the King would not eat his porridge, nor anything else. Then one morning he walked into the breakfast room but was puzzled to find that the Queen was not there. Nor was anyone else to be seen. "My dear!" he called. "Where are you?" "I can't understand it," he muttered to himself. "Where is everybody?" "I'm in my bedroom," cried a pettish voice, which didn't sound at all like the Queen's usual gentle tone. Surprised, the King went towards the room, and as he did so the Lord High Chancellor passed him, looking very sour. "Good morning!" said the King, cheer"F' don't think it's a good morning," replied the Lord High Chancellor, crossly. "I'm going back to bed. I don't feel very well." And with that he walked away. "Don't you want any breakfast?"_ asked the King, as he saw his wife lying in bed with a pained expression cm her 3 "No, and the servants didn't want any, either, so I sent them all back to bed.