August

Issue 35

    There once was a very happy little girl named Sally. She was the happiest little girl in her school, the happiest little girl in her town, and the happiest little girl in her whole country. Sally was happier than all the other little girls because she had two grandfathers who were kings. This made Sally a princess of sorts, although she really just felt like a regular little girl.

    One of Sally’s grandfathers was the king of a tiny country called Nectaria. His subjects called him King Poppyseed because he liked to eat poppy seed buns, and every time he ate them, he got poppy seeds all in his bushy gray beard. Sally just called him Poppy.

    King Poppyseed was a kind old king, and the people of Nectaria loved him very much. He was always fair and just, and he never raised taxes.  King Poppyseed liked to walk along the streets of his kingdom every morning and pick up any litter he found. There was never much litter in Nectaria, but the king wanted to do his part to keep things tidy. And while he walked, King Poppyseed always took the time to speak to all the people, rich and poor alike, to ask the rich to share with the poor and to tell them all how much he loved them.

    King Poppyseed liked all of the people of Nectaria just the same. He made time to play with the children, and whenever they played, he let them take turns wearing his gold crown. Best of all, King Poppyseed didn’t have any big, mean soldiers in his kingdom, and people were allowed to enter or leave Nectaria anytime they wanted. Few people ever left Nectaria, though, because it was a happy and kind place--a place very much like its king.

    Sally’s other grandfather was ruler of the great empire of Biternia, a kingdom one hundred times the size of tiny Nectaria. The people who lived in Biternia had to call their emperor “His Magnificence, the Great and Honorable King Frumpworthy, Eminent and Sovereign Ruler of Biternia”. They called him this because he got very, very angry if anyone called him anything else, or if anyone accidentally forgot part of his title. Even his granddaughter had to call him “His Magnificence, the Great and Honorable King Frumpworthy, Eminent and Sovereign Ruler of Biternia”. She didn’t like to say all that every time she talked to her grandfather, but she was afraid of him. Everyone was afraid of him.