| Show WATCHES FOR CAKES An Anecdote of the Mikado of Japan Boys Will be Boys Clarence Ludlow Browncll is responsible respon-sible I for the following anecdote which I appears in the May St Nicholas When Polcan no Kade was 0 youngster young-ster his particular playmate was Mutsu Uito the present Emperor of Japan Mutsu and Kade had many likes in common and dislikes too but they were generous lads and had never I been known to quarrel Difference In I rank had not come between them and each one was devoted to the other as two chums should be One of their common likes was calces There was much discussion about the palace I whether Kade or the Son of the Immortals Im-mortals ate this sweet of the pastry maker with the keener relish Certainly Certain-ly I It was a joyous sight to see either of them amunching and when they munched together as they often did on the bank of the lotuspond In the i I I palace garden even the fiercest of the guardsmen would begin to purr But one day there was no cake The 1 Son of the Immortals had had a pain that morning and the thirteen court physicians after consultation had told the chamberlain whQ told the keeper of the royal purse who told the imperial provider who told the grand srnd high caterer who told the dispenser of the sacred pastry that tho cake was I the cause of the ache Eleven minutes later there was no cake to be found in I the royal palace When Mutsu told the noble guardian to whose charge ho had been committed commit-ted for the day that he desired cake that functionary bowed low and told the officer next In rank that the Son of the Immortals wished for cake This officer in turn bowed tc the ground and then repeated the royal wish to an officer still lower and so it went oni but the cake did not appear Chin no Kwashl doko ka cried Mutsu which being Interpreted means Where is my cake The no ble guardian bowed low and said to the officer below him The Son of the Immortal Ones hns deigned to say Whore Is my cake These words also were repeated and many others petulant wrathful and beseeching but that which was longed for did not come The palace aud the grounds about echoed with the voices of officers and servants of many grades who were as the linlcs of 1 chain beginning at the feet of the Son of the Immortals and ending nowhere at least not in the cakepantry The air was full of the word cake hut the thing cake came not In sight While all this was going on Pokan no Kade sat on n pile of sand near the great man of the palace playing with u halfdozen watChes which his imperial im-perial chum had given to him the day before Watches or told as Mutsu had called them were new things In Japan then especially repeaters and all six of these were repeaters Kade had great fun with them ring lug their bells and laying them like steppingstones about a dainty gar den such as all Japanese children can I lay out in miniature so prettily Once he built a castle and pretty the watches In two piles on the very top Just as the gold dolphins are put on the castle of Nagoya He was so busy with his play that for a long time he did not hear the many voices saying cake But cclce finally when an inadvertent kick had upset his castle and he was looking about for something else to do he I heard the cries and soon found out their meaning I I Thrusting the watches Into his sleeve 1 which was large enough to hold more i playthings than the pockety of a whole j suit of clothes such as an American I boy wears he ran to the royal kitchen < i but of course there waa no cake there j nor would the cooks make any though I Kade begged never HO hard I i Ill get some anyhow he said to himself A watch Is as pretty as a J caJr I know where theres an old wo t man with t houseful of cakes She just I sits and looks at them l cluy Ill go I to see her 1 So Kade slipped out unseen and went to the cakcBhop where he laid the six I watches on the floor near where the I old woman sat and picking up six of l the prettiest cakes put them in his sleeves qnd scampered back to the palace l I That night the thirteen court physi clan held another consultation |
