Most of us have some time or other visited a great metropolis--have wandered through its network of streets--lost ourselves in its crowds of people--looked up at its tall rows of houses, its grand public buildings, churches, and squares. Also, perhaps, we have peeped into its miserable little back alleys, where dirty children play in gutters all day and half the night--even young boys go about picking pockets, with nobody to tell them it is wrong except the policeman, and he simply takes them off to prison.
And all this wretchedness is close behind the grandeur--like the two sides of the leaf of a book.
An awful sight is a large city, seen any how from any where. But, suppose you were to see it from the upper air, where, with your eyes and ears open, you could take in everything at once? What would it look like? How would you feel about it? I hardly know myself. Do you?
Prince Dolor had need to be a king--that is, a boy with a kingly nature--to be able to stand such a sight without being utterly overcome.
But he was very much bewildered--as bewildered as a blind person who is suddenly made to see.
He gazed down on the city below him, and then put his hand over his eyes.
"I can't bear to look at it, it is so beautiful--so dreadful. And I don't understand it--not one bit. There is nobody to tell me about it.
I wish I had somebody to speak to."
"Do you? Then pray speak to me. I was always considered good at conversation."The voice that squeaked out this reply was an excellent imitation of the human one, though it came only from a bird. No lark this time, however, but a great black and white creature that flew into the cloak, and began walking round and round on the edge of it with a dignified stride, one foot before the other, like any unfeathered biped you could name.
"I haven't the honor of your acquaintance, sir," said the boy politely.
"Ma'am, if you please. I am a mother bird, and my name is Mag, and I shall be happy to tell you everything you want to know. For Iknow a great deal; and I enjoy talking. My family is of great antiquity; we have built in this palace for hundreds--that is to say, dozens of years. I am intimately acquainted with the king, the queen, and the little princes and princesses--also the maids of honor, and all the inhabitants of the city. I talk a good deal, but Ialways talk sense, and I daresay I should be ex-ceedingly useful to a poor little ignorant boy like you.""I am a prince," said the other gently.
"All right. And I am a magpie. You will find me a most respectable bird.""I have no doubt of it," was the polite answer --though he thought in his own mind that Mag must have a very good opinion of herself. But she was a lady and a stranger, so of course he was civil to her.
She settled herself at his elbow, and began to chatter away, pointing out with one skinny claw, while she balanced herself on the other, every object of interest, evidently believing, as no doubt all its inhabitants did, that there was no capital in the world like the great metropolis of Nomansland.
I have not seen it, and therefore cannot describe it, so we will just take it upon trust, and suppose it to be, like every other fine city, the finest city that ever was built. Mag said so--and of course she knew.
Nevertheless, there were a few things in it which surprised Prince Dolor--and, as he had said, he could not understand them at all. One half the people seemed so happy and busy--hurrying up and down the full streets, or driv-ing lazily along the parks in their grand carriages, while the other half were so wretched and miserable.
"Can't the world be made a little more level?
I would try to do it if I were a king."
"But you're not the king: only a little goose of a boy," returned the magpie loftily. "And I'm here not to explain things, only to show them. Shall I show you the royal palace?"It was a very magnificent palace. It had terraces and gardens, battlements and towers. It extended over acres of ground, and had in it rooms enough to accommodate half the city. Its windows looked in all directions, but none of them had any particular view--except a small one, high up toward the roof, which looked out on the Beautiful Mountains. But since the queen died there it had been closed, boarded up, indeed, the magpie said. It was so little and inconvenient that nobody cared to live in it.
Besides, the lower apartments, which had no view, were magnificent--worthy of being inhabited by the king.
"I should like to see the king," said Prince Dolor.
